New Chili Peppers Due in Spring

After six months of work, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have finished recording the instrumental tracks for their new album, and Anthony Kiedis is in the process of recording his vocals. The album should be completed by February and is due in stores by April or May.

"I've pretty much done all my contributions to the record," says bassist Flea. "And since I'm a terrible singer there's not much for me to do at this point."

The group previewed a few songs -- including "Don't Forget," "Universally Speaking" and "Fortune Faded" -- during their forty-five-minute set at the Silver Lining Benefit in Los Angeles on December 15th. "We're so happy with the songs that we wrote that eventually our show will be full of them," Kiedis says.

The album will be the follow-up to 1999's Californication, the band's most successful release in nearly ten years, having sold more than 4 million copies to date.

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Song Stories

“The A Team”

Ed Sheeran | 2011

This debut track from the then-20-year-old British singer-songwriter has a dark story behind it. Sheeran says he culls songwriting inspiration from "viewing other people's situations," which, for the heroine in "The A Team," involves drug addiction and prostitution that began as a teen. Sheeran paints the woman's trials with haunting imagery such as "But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries." "I did a gig at a homeless shelter, [and the song] is about one of the women there. It's her story," he said.

More Song Stories entries »

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