Red Hot Chili Peppers’ iconic bassist Flea is in the midst of rolling out his long-awaited debut album, titled ‘HONORA’. It bears little or no resemblance to his group’s music, returning to his roots as a jazz trumpeter across 10 tracks that include ‘A Plea’, the shocking first single, and ‘Traffic Lights’, his brilliant collaboration with Thom Yorke.
‘HONORA’, available next March 27, aims to be one of the most unique albums of the year and not only because of Flea’s musical drift, but because of the great quality of the songs. ‘A Plea’ called for the union of humanity over exciting jazz instrumentation. ‘Traffic Lights’, on the other hand, is cryptic, subtle and highly abstract. Perfect for Thom Yorke’s voice.
It doesn’t take long for this to appear in the song with phrases as difficult to decipher as “the whole or just a part” or “call us when you’re fed up.” It doesn’t matter, because the atmosphere created is what totally sells the song. This has no major surprises, nor an exaggerated differentiation of its parts. It just flows, and it feels like it could do so for much longer than its almost 6 minute length.
‘Traffic Lights’ also represents a partial return of Atoms for Peace, with Mauro Refosco participating in the percussion of the piece. “Some of it reminded me of Atoms for Peace and I sent it to Thom,” says Flea about the collaboration with the Radiohead vocalist.
‘HONORA’, composed entirely by Flea, will feature six original tracks and four covers, including ‘Thinkin Bout You’ (Frank Ocean), ‘Maggot Brain’ (Funkadelic), ‘Wichita Lineman’ (written by Jimmy Webb) and ‘Willow Weep For Me’ (written by Ann Ronnell).
Tracklist:
Golden Wingship
A Plea
Traffic Lights
Frailed
Morning Cry
Maggot Brain
Wichita Lineman
Thinkin’ Bout You
Willow Weep for Me
Free As I Want to Be
