Red Hot Chili Peppers announce second album of 2022, Return of the Dream Canteen

Only a few months after the release of their 12th album, Unlimited Love, Red Hot Chili Peppers have surprise-announced a follow-up, titled Return of the Dream Canteen.

Arriving October 14 via Warner Records, the new LP is, like Unlimited Love, produced by Rick Rubin, and marks the band’s second outing since the return of longtime-on-and-off guitarist John Frusciante in 2019.

Frontman Anthony Kiedis surprised the audience during the band’s recent show at Denver Empower Field on Saturday (July 23), announcing the new full-length midway through the set.

On how their second album of 2022 came about, the band write in a new statement: “We went in search of ourselves as the band that we have somehow always been. Just for the fun of it we jammed and learned some old songs. Before long we started the mysterious process of building new songs. A beautiful bit of chemistry meddling that had befriended us hundred of times along the way.

“Once we found that slipstream of sound and vision, we just kept mining. With time turned into an elastic waistband of oversized underwear, we had no reason to stop writing and rocking. It felt like a dream. When all was said and done, our moody love for each other and the magic of music had gifted us with more songs than we knew what to do with.”

They continue: “We figured it out. Two double albums released back to back. The second of which is easily as meaningful as the first or should that be reversed. Return of the Dream Canteen is everything we are and ever dreamed of being. It’s packed. Made with the blood of our hearts, yours truly, the Red Hot Chili Peppers.”

Following Frusciante’s reentry into the band in 2019, the funk rock legends didn’t start writing at first, but rather they jammed early Chili Peppers material, as well as covers of classic tracks, including Some Other Guy by Richie Barrett and Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s Hot Little Mama. 

Soon after, the band began writing for a new studio album, and the creative juices were flowing such that they brought a whopping 45 completed songs to Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La studio in 2021.

“You know, I was ready to stop when we had, like, 20 – I felt like that was good enough,” Frusciante told Guitar World earlier this year. “But one thing led to another and somebody or other kept encouraging me to keep bringing in more songs. So, before we knew it, we had way more songs than we’d ever written for a record before.”

He added that he felt the four-piece “saved some of the best stuff for the potential next album”, now revealed to be Return of the Dream Canteen.

Red Hot Chili Peppers will continue their current North America tour at San Diego’s Petco Park on Wednesday (July 27). The trek is scheduled to run until September 25, when the quartet will headline the Sunday of Kentucky’s Louder Than Life festival. See the band’s website for a full list of dates.