When George Clinton handed the crown of funk to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, they took it and ran. Producing a new era of rhythm for white kids to shake to and peaking with the 7-time platinum-selling Blood Sugar Sex Magik, the Peppers ruled the roost for nearly a decade. But on their eighth album, By The Way, the group veers a hard left toward floating melodies rather than funk-your-monk rhythms.

Recorded on a laptop in a hotel room at L.A.’s infamous Chateau Marmont with longtime Chili producer Rick Rubin, the album shows a gradual step towards concinnity and development over party tunes. The title track, probably the funkiest track on the album, floats along the lines of Californication’s “Scar Tissue,” but the following song “Universally Speaking” shows that their earlier Cali influences have struck a chord with the Funky Monks. The track's ooh-ahh harmonies and simple rhythm, backed by sweeping string sections and mini-piano accents, feels like a retro flashback to beach blanket sing-a-longs in the 1960s.

On “Oh Mercury,” dancehall sounds and choppy accordion melodies fade into a harmonized chorus ala The Beach Boys. But don’t let the summertime chorus fool you. Guitarist John Frusciante still keeps a bouncing rhythm with straightforward bass lines by Flea and a simplistic drum beat with plenty of frills by Chad Smith. The return of Frusciante brings the core of RCHP back to its best line-up. They're full of ideas and a looking toward a new direction, and it seems Frusciante took the reigns for By The Way, leading the Peppers to rethink their in-your-face attitude.

With By The Way, the Chili Peppers have found the perfect balance between rocking your socks off and the California sound they keep so close to heart. After many years of growth, tragedy and kinship, they can still give us an album full of surprises and just enough funk to keep old listeners happy.

Dan Marek