Red Hot Chili Peppers - Look Around

For bands who've been in the game as long as the Chilis have, there's an easy temptation to fall back on your laurels and play to your strengths, putting out track after track that pushes all the boxes while rarely pushing the envelope and exploring new avenues.

And in a way, this comes as both a blessing and curse. New single Look Around marks a step back in the right direction after the cringe-inducing, overly indulgent The Adventures Of Rain Dance Maggie - but it also plays out like a kind of Chili Peppers box-ticking exercise with every trademark element of their sound neatly slotted in.

Funky guitar and basslines, all there. Nonsensical rap elements, chalk that up on the board too. Oh, and why not chuck in a throwaway 'hustle me bitch and you best beware' lyric too. Look Around is classic Chili Peppers, and it undoubtedly sounds good, but only because it follows so closely in the footsteps of their far greater previous hits - in this instance, the ghost of This Is The Place feels particularly close.

You're left craving the original article, how unashamedly thrilling By The Way sounded when it hit stores back in 2002. Ten years on, the Chilis march resolutely on, but playing catch-up on their own past.

Look Around is released on the 5th March.