“Dark Necessities” by Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American funk rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in the early 1980’s, the group is one of the best-selling bands of all time with over 80 million records sold worldwide. They’ve been nominated for sixteen Grammy Awards, and are widely considered the most successful band in alt-rock history. They currently have thirteen number-one singles across a career that has spanned over thirty years, and they’re still going strong. Their song “Dark Necessities” is off their 11th studio album The Getaway, and was released on May 5th, 2017.

The song is an examination of the dark parts of the human psyche, and how sometimes they’re necessary. Lead singer and writer of the song Anthony Kiedis said that it “speaks to the beauty of our dark sides and how much creativity and growth and light actually comes out of those difficult struggles that we have on the inside of our heads that no one else can see.” The track has an immensely funky bassline courtesy of founding member and bassist Flea. This bassline fits the lead vocals and flow of Kiedis. At the four minute mark, guitarist Josh Klinghoffer engages in an amazing one minute guitar solo that really ends the song on a high note. It’s a fitting and exciting comeback track for a band releasing their first piece of new music in five years.

The music video features long boarders riding around various locations in the city of Los Angeles. These locations include a grocery store, abandoned streets, and the Los Angeles. river. These shots of the long boarders are interspersed with the band playing the song in a dark, dingy house. This is meant to simulate the darkness within the human psyche that the song is alluding to.These dark shots in the house contrast with the daylight footage of the longboarders in Los Angeles, showing the two sides of life: both dark and light coexisting. Drummer Chad Smith wears black chucks in the video, which fits in the overall SoCal vibe the video is going for. It’s a video befitting the song, and its imagery helps enforce the idea that sometimes we need darkness to enjoy the light.