'Stadium' is Mostly Filler

The Peppers' career has survived three stages, mostly defined by who's playing guitar and how bad that guitarist's junk habit is.

There's the "punk funk" years, when they were the druggy, thuggy doofs from L.A. who loved the Germs and George Clinton in equal measure. Guitarist Hillel Slovak died of a heroin overdose in 1988.

Then there were the alt-rock years with guitarist John Frusciante, during which they became one of the world's biggest bands. Then Frusciante quit to pursue his own junk habit in '92. Not a good look.

Since 1999's weirdly compelling "Californication," with a cleaned-up Frusciante back in the band, the Peppers are now alt-rock's elder statesmen, penning endless variations — thematic and musical — on "Under the Bridge." Some are moving (the songs "Californication," "Scar Tissue"), some are just retreads (pretty much everything else).

But that's no excuse for a two-hour, 28-song double CD; there's never any excuse for a double CD. Produced by musical-enabler-to-the-stars Rick Rubin, "Stadium Arcadium" is an exhausting slog through the Peppers' late-era skill set — funk, ballads, the sort of whanging guitar doodles that Fruciante should keep to solo albums, bassist Flea's always-deft low end, rock-solid drumming from Chad Smith and Anthony Kiedis' shirtless croon. There are high points — "Dani California," the mildly trippy title track, the furious "Torture Me," even the acoustic "If" ain't bad — but finding them is exhausting.