Stadium Arcadium is the ninth studio album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was a double album released on May 9, 2006, on Warner Bros. Records. It produced five singles: Dani California, Tell Me Baby, Snow (Hey Oh), Desecration Smile and Hump de Bump, along with the band’s first ever fan made music video, for the song Charlie. In the United States, Stadium Arcadium became the band’s first number one album. Stadium Arcadium was originally scheduled to be a trilogy of albums each released six months apart, but was eventually condensed into a double album.
The album was praised for integrating musical styles from several aspects of the band’s career. The album gained the band seven Grammy Award nominations in 2007 including an award for Best Rock Album and one for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package. Winning five out of seven Grammy Awards, it was the most nominations that the band had garnered in their (at the time) 23 year career. Rolling Stone has included the album on its list of Best Albums of the 2000s. Kiedis attributed the album’s success to less abrasive dynamics within the band, saying that the band’s “chemistry, when it comes to writing, is better than ever. There was always a struggle to dominate lyrically. But we are now confident enough in who we are, so everybody feels more comfortable contributing more and more valuable, quality stuff.”
After the culmination of the Stadium Arcadium tour, guitarist John Frusciante left the band in July 2009. It was his last album with the band until the release of Unlimited Love in 2022, more than a decade later.
Tracklist:
CD 1 (Jupiter)
- Dani California
- Snow (Hey Oh)
- Charlie
- Stadium Arcadium
- Hump de Bump
- She’s Only 18
- Slow Cheetah
- Torture Me
- Strip My Mind
- Especially in Michigan
- Warlocks
- C’mon Girl
- Wet Sand
- Hey
CD 2 (Mars)
- Desecration Smile
- Tell Me Baby
- Hard to Concentrate
- 21st Century
- She Looks to Me
- Readymade
- If
- Make You Feel Better
- Animal Bar
- So Much I
- Storm in a Teacup
- We Believe
- Turn It Again
- Death of a Martian
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Anthony Kiedis: lead vocals
John Frusciante: guitars, backing vocals, keyboards, synthesizer, mellotron
Flea: bass guitar, trumpet
Chad Smith: drums, percussion
Additional musicians
Natalie Baber, Mylissa Hoffman, Alexis Izenstark, Spencer Izenstark, Dylan Lerner, Kyle Lerner, Gabrielle Mosbe, Monique Mosbe, Sophia Mosbe, Isabella Shmelev, Landen Starkman, Wyatt Starkman: background vocals on “We Believe”
Michael Bulger: trombone on “Turn It Again”
Lenny Castro: percussion
Paulinho da Costa: percussion
Richard Dodd: cello on “She Looks to Me”
Emily Kokal: chorus vocals on “Desecration Smile”
Billy Preston: clavinet on “Warlocks”
Omar Rodríguez-López: guitar solo on “Especially in Michigan”
Brad Warnaar: French horn on “Stadium Arcadium”
Recording personnel
Rick Rubin: production
Andrew Scheps: mixing and engineering
Ryan Hewitt: mixing and engineering
Dana Nielsen: engineering
Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman: mastering (vinyl)
Vlado Meller: mastering (CD)
Additional personnel
Shane Jackson: assistant photography
Gus Van Sant: art direction
