Honora

Flea was first introduced to fans as a funk-punk oddball who slapped the bass wearing nothing but a tube sock on his dick, but he's since adopted a more sophisticated musical language. He founded a music school in 2001, attended USC in his 40s to learn music theory, and launched a jazz fusion side career previously showcased on the 2012 EP Helen Burns.Now, more than 40 years since he co-founded the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the 63-year-old has released his first solo album — and that perhaps explains why Honora feels a bit like a few different projects in one, its moments of revelatory beauty refracted through a slightly convoluted structure.First single "A Plea" hinted that this was going to be a bit of a strange project: it's a near-eight-minute freakout, jittery jazz grooves serving as the backdrop for Flea's spoken-word manifesto about the need for peace and love. "I don't care about your fucking politics," he declares, a chorus of voices chanting "civil war" as Flea urges us to "see the god in everyone." It's a nice thought, but a bit simplistic; in an America where the party in power is starting wars, supporting genocide, murdering people in anti-immigration crackdowns and trying to legislate trans people out of existence, vague platitudes about how everyone should get along don't quite cut it.It's similarly a little awkward when Flea gets behind the mic for the opening monologue of a cover of Funkadelic's "Maggot Brain" — but it becomes sublime once he picks up his trumpet to solo plaintively over a progression of arpeggios. It's a bit of a strange choice to fill up the second half of the album with covers, but it's also hard to argue with the sheer beauty of his version of "Thinkin Bout You," his bass and trumpet tracing Frank Ocean's melody amidst cinematic strings straight out of a movie soundtrack.An elegiac cover of the country classic "Wichita Lineman" doesn't quite fit, although Nick Cave's vocal appearance signifies a sweet reconciliation with Flea following the singer's famously vicious diss of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Much more successful is a cameo from Flea's Atoms for Peace collaborator Thom Yorke, who channels some of the jazzy anxiety of the Smile in the album's most song-y track "Traffic Lights."There are seasick synths on "Willow Weep for Me" and classic funk-soul riffs on closer "Free as I Want to Be," but it's the subtle majesty of the 11-minute "Frailed" where Flea truly finds his sweet spot. Droning ambience and electronic percussion are anchored by thrumming bass, flute and violin, trading solos before Flea's trumpet duels with waves of delay. It's a stunning, cinematic mood piece — miles away from "Can't Stop" or "Give It Away," but every bit as full of vibe. Flea assembled a crack band of jazz masters for Honora, including Anna Butterss, a bassist so good they can hang with him. Yet it's the more minimal, pensive tracks that really shine here, Flea's trumpet drenched equally in reverb and emotion.To riff on a previously-alluded-to quote from Nick Cave: I'm forever near a stereo saying, "What is this beautiful ambient-jazz odyssey?" And the answer is always Flea.