Return of the Dream Canteen

The band promised that they weren’t going to play it safe with this record, and it seems to have paid off.

Return of the Dream Canteen is a pretty faithful second helping of Red Hot Chili Peppers as they stand in 2022. ... It’s hard not to wonder what kind of splash the album could have made had it been pared down or if there was more time between the two releases. As it stands now, though, Return of the Dream Canteen still manages to add more than it takes away.

The whole fun of a new RHCP album is hearing the ways they grapple with their legacy and push the boundaries of their sound. In that sense, Dream Canteen offers just the right amount of old and new.

At 75 minutes is even longer than its predecessor, is essentially “Unlimited Love II.” it’s a bit of a stop-gap, but also a nice coda.

Return of the Dream Canteen is better overall than the previous effort. It might have a couple of higher sonic peaks, but suffers from similar flaws. Obviously, one hour-long album with the strongest tracks recorded in the past couple of years would have been enough for a stronger comeback.

While some of these songs can feel regressive or at least undercooked on their own, they’re reframed by the open-hearted sadness that takes over the album’s second half.

Mildly soulful, rarely unpalatable, the Chili Peppers keep delivering American fast-food for the ears, even as they enter their sixties.

Like its sibling Unlimited Love, Return of the Dream Canteen benefits from the positive energy of these four friends just having fun in the studio, and is designed for listeners to plug in and bliss out without any expectations of mainstream-ready fare.