If The Red Hot Chili Peppers [ tickets ]' previous studio album, 2002's "By the Way," signaled a new kind of maturity from a group of guys who once wore nothing but tube socks onstage, forget it. The Peppers' latest is "Stadium Arcadium," a monster double album that finds some major funk back in their trunk.

"Stadium Arcadium" boasts 28 songs totaling just over 120 minutes. Much of it is a return to the band's early, gritty-but-silly sound, an amalgam of funk, punk and sexed-up SoCal energy. Songs like "Hump de Bump," with its sexual overtones, "Torture Me," with its jittery trumpets, and "Storm in a Teacup," its deep metal refrain anchoring a hot groove, are timeless, recalling the music that first established the Peppers as a top-tier ensemble--despite the socks.

But "Arcadium" is a double album, and as such it boasts some junk, too. So, depending on your Pepper dependency, you may even hate "Stadium Arcadium," dismissing it as an album from a group that's truly lost its mojo. You may think lyrics like, "Down in the South Seas / Give me your mouth please," from the jangly "She Looks to Me," are downright goofy. You'd be right. And if you hated the awful "Make You Feel Better," really, who could blame you?

"Stadium Arcadium" is too long, too tedious, and crammed with songs that sometimes aren't worth a second listen. But, strangely, if you've ever loved this band, you will have no problem finding at least a dozen classic Chili Pepper tracks here.

It's what to do with the other 16 that's the problem.