Image: Getty Images. Share Facebook Twitter Mail Whatsapp. Here's how Australia got the album first, and what happened next.

How The Strokes ended up in Australia on the eve of their big breakthrough When You Am I's support act dropped out, one of the world's biggest bands stepped in.

Thu 6 Feb , pm. Fri 12 Nov Thu 11 Nov Others would follow -- Kings of Leon , Jet, the Killers -- but few would be as instantly influential. In a sense, the Strokes kicked off their own retro-rock movement, and the critical praise was swift and positive.

Music writers dug the old-timey sounding band -- especially given all the day's saccharine pop and daddy-hating cock-rock. Not surprisingly, U. As a result, Stadium Arcadium is best viewed as an incredibly rewarding and varied tribute to the group's history. It was almost inevitable that the Chili Peppers would issue one, too. In fact, they'd intended to release Stadium Arcadium as a trilogy, dropping six months apart, before deciding to put out everything at once, the band told NME in In his July interview with Total Guitar , Frusciante revealed they had no reservations about attempting such a feat, either: "We don't just make music … for our own pleasure; we make music for our audience.

We write 28 songs that we think are top-notch, that's what we want to give to the public … We're putting out what we believe is worthy. It's also worth noting that making Stadium Arcadium was more congenial and collaborative than By the Way , due mostly to the repaired relationship between Frusciante and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea.

Due to his melodic prowess and characteristically adaptable methods, Frusciante was often seen as the heart of the Chili Pepper's sound around this time. That was especially evident on By the Way , on which he desired to move further away from the edginess of the band's past and toward the harmonious arrangements of groups like the Beatles , the Beach Boys and his own fruitful solo discography.

Consequently, Flea, who wanted to emphasize their prior funk and punk elements, felt somewhat uninvolved and unappreciated to the point that he contemplated quitting after the band finished their By the Way World Tour; the two worked out their differences by the time Stadium Arcadium got underway.

Speaking to Kerrang! I don't force my ideas on people as much as I did. In a chat with MTV News , vocalist Anthony Kiedis noted, "There was very little tension, very little anxiety, [and] very little weirdness going on … everyone felt more comfortable than ever bringing in their ideas. Those creative peaks and compromises undoubtedly make Stadium Arcadium such an all-encompassing victory.

In fact, it became the Chili Pepper's first No. Fifteen years later, Stadium Arcadium endures as one of the quartet's most representative and striving projects. Divided into two parts—the engaging "Jupiter" and the comparatively esoteric "Mars"—it logically continues the contemporary rock templates and earworm songwriting of By the Way and Californication.

Specifically, the ironically sunny elegy "Dani California," which centers on the same character from the title tracks off the aforementioned predecessors, is undeniably catchy and tightly composed, while "Snow Hey Oh " and "Stadium Arcadium" are lovingly poppy and symphonic. Later, the acoustic guitar strums and radiant harmonies of "Slow Cheetah," "Desecration Smile" and "Hey" border on folk rock, whereas "So Much I" is peak alternative rock smoothness.

Of course, the real brilliance of Stadium Arcadium is how it peppers no pun intended more modern flavors with comprehensive doses of wide-ranging nostalgia. Similarly, songs like "Charlie," "Hump de Bump," "Warlocks" and "Readymade" recall the frisky funkiness of Freaky Styley and The Uplift Mofo Party Plan via playful horns, resourceful percussion and Flea's trademark slap bass vigorousness.

Although Kiedis, Flea, and drummer Chad Smith excel throughout the album's two-hour runtime, it's perhaps Frusciante who shows the most range and advancement throughout Stadium Arcadium.

Red Hot Chili Peppers have long been one of the most daring and diverse bands of their generation; each album and phase has its unique touch and deserves its own audience. Even so, Stadium Arcadium , an all-encompassing magnum opus, offers just about everything one could possibly want from a Chili Peppers record—and then some.

It sees the quartet expanding upon their stylistic past while commemorating their newly restored bond; all the while, Stadium Arcadium amplifies the idiosyncratic essentialness of the Red Hot Chili Peppers as both a collective force and individually distinctive musicians. John Lennon asked The Beatles for a "divorce ," and he got his wish. After the group's breakup in , quarreling and competition were the norm between himself, Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

In Lennon's case, this tension added to a slightly tainted reputation derived from the public's disappointment upon The Beatles' end, his unpopular marriage to Yoko Ono and an artistic dispersion. The latter resulted from an ongoing quest to find his spot in a world he'd grown frustrated with yet to which he desperately wanted to belong. As evidenced by his songs and remarks , Lennon's efforts to find himself often left him feeling empty, and he regularly lacked unconditional trust or engagement.

Standing in the way of this self-discovery process was an inability to resolve past traumas , which was one of the main reasons why Lennon decided to undergo Arthur Janov's primal scream program. He had the apparent goal of finally dealing with childhood wounds related to his mother's death and feelings of rejection linked to his father's absence.

But the treatment also addressed the recent pain of losing his other family—the one Lennon had shared a life with for the past decade. In short, how could he go forward when he didn't know which way he was facing? December also marks the 40th anniversary of his murder.

This intimacy was also apparent in the recording process: Apart from Lennon and Ono, the latter of whom is credited on the album sleeve for contributing "wind," the only other musicians were Starr and bassist Klaus Voormann , along with former Beatles roadie Mal Evans for "tea and sympathy" , pianist Billy Preston and Phil Spector , who played piano on "Love" and "God," respectively.

When a cycle doesn't end fast enough, there's often a tendency to accelerate it, and Lennon was a man on a mission. The previous year, Lennon had been creatively disengaged from the Let It Be sessions and generally disapproving of the approach McCartney and producer George Martin wanted for Abbey Road , as he attempted to destroy the entity he helped create. This self-sabotaging process, which coincided with his dangerous affair with heroin, often translated into a deafening silence that Beatles scholar Stephanie Piotrowski describes in her Ph.

But silence wasn't his sole strategy. For anyone unable to take a hint, in September , he privately told the other three Beatles he was leaving the group. Their financial manager, Allen Klein, asked them to keep this development a secret for as long as possible, fearing the news would undermine sales of the forthcoming album, Let It Be , which was taking forever to mix and master.

Lennon's apparent hurry to break free makes it odd that Plastic Ono Band only came out in December , rendering him the last Beatle to release a proper debut album. And don't forget the hastily put-together Live Peace In Toronto , which partly consisted of early rock covers and featured Ono, guitarist Eric Clapton , bassist Voormann and drummer Alan White.

Spector was supposed to be producing, but he was missing in action when the sessions began, leading Lennon to publish a full-page ad in Billboard saying, "Phil! John is ready this weekend. Lennon and Ono's minimalist approach matched the content better, allowing the emotional outpouring to sound adequately barer. Revolving around themes of healing, surrender and replacement, Plastic Ono Band is a prime example of Lennon's songwriting particularities. These include his remarkable ability to craft instant hooks, focus on the lyrical element and rely on subjectivity in storytelling, which contrasted with McCartney's general preference for third-person points of view.

Always with a way with words, Lennon refrained from complicating his message, choosing direct statements " Hold On ," " Look At Me " over the elusive metaphors and cryptic references he often returned to during The Beatles' later years. This aspect made the album vaguely echo his mid-'60s confessional period that produced " Help! This harsh perception mostly came from the absurdly high expectations following The Beatles' breakup.

It's not about freedom and love, but madness and pain. Fans embraced its relatability. It's easier to identify with one's idol opening up about their problems of love and loss than hearing them discuss overly abstract concepts, the renunciatory "God" and tender "Love" being exceptions. But it also helped that the album didn't become as heavy an institution as Imagine did. Less over ab used by pop culture and more grounded in both content and form, Plastic Ono Band felt more human and accessible, despite coming from the myth-ridden colossus called John Lennon.

In September , three months before his death, Lennon gave an extensive interview to David Sheff for Playboy magazine.

Sheff asked what Ono had done for him. It kick-started a new life Lennon knew would be radically different from everything he had previously experienced. In addition to representing a threshold moment for Lennon, the album underwent a mutation with regard to its critical reception.

Over the decades, Plastic Ono Band received praise that was anything but a given at its release. They even played a hugely memorable Halloween show at Hammerstein Ballroom. But enough with the logistics. It still became the only thing I wanted to listen to, over and over and over again. Mowing the lawn?

The Strokes. Driving to practice? And yet, Is This It remains my top pick, an indelible masterpiece, one that I still play almost every single day. As I listened to Is This It, I dreamed up my own New York City in my mind, with visions of rock concerts, skyscraper vistas, an apartment filled with band posters. My trajectory in life became a little more clear in , thanks to a stint at a college radio station and a job at the student newspaper at Michigan State, where I was attending school.

New York City felt far removed from snowy, quiet winters in mid-Michigan. I was fully onboard and in awe. The Strokes, on SNL? How very New York. The seeds of an idea were planted. What would that be like? What would it feel like to live there?

And how on Earth could I possibly make it happen? The desire blossomed across the next year or so. That video became the world I wanted to live in: The denim jackets, the quiet, sweet yet sad perspective of the song, the sensation that this band just might be the coolest on the planet.