I'm With You is a Red Hot Chili Peppers album. No shit, right? It's a point worth repeating because not only is it the most important thing about I'm With You, it's the only important thing about I'm With You. None of the actively recording Peppers-level elite-- not Metallica, not Coldplay, not U2, not Green Day-- have been more consistently and richly rewarded for simply showing up and being themselves. Since Californication kickstarted a second sustained run of monster popularity, the Peppers have not bitterly divided their fanbase over the way their drums were recorded, nor have they gone outside their inner circle for a bold sonic reconstruction. None of their albums were considered kinda hitless duds, and even their samey double-LP wasn't scoffed at as ambitious but more of the same.