Rock Band Download Low-Down: Week 46

Each week we’ll run out onto our website stage like roadies and review the latest Rock Band Downloadable Content. Check back every week! (And click here for all of our previous music DLC reviews.)

*NOTE: Each of the songs in this week’s selection costs 160 Microsoft Points ($2). They are also available as a full album download for 1,600 points ($20).

Blood Sugar Sex Magik by Red Hot Chili Peppers (1992, 16 download tracks)

WHAT ROCKS: There's precious little funk in Rock Band, and the Chilis' funk/rock hybrid of thumping basslines, swinging rhythms, and percussive guitar attacks is as close as you're going to get -- and a good choice to introduce rockers to the genre. Guitarists won't find too many manic solo runs (there are a few), but they will have their hands full with tricky stoccato chord stabs — it's a rhythm player's paradise. Flea's lengendary basslines sparkle even on lower skill levels. For drummers, Hard and Expert offer some delicious complexity, particularly on tracks like "Breaking the Girl" and "Naked in the Rain." Also, it's nice that the album's hit single, "Give It Away" — available on the RB2 disc — slots right in to where it should be when you choose to play the whole album. At 17 tracks, playing the album in order is a hefty setlist!

WHAT SUCKS: On Easy and Medium, drums are largely a snooze. But funk is, by its nature, repetitive; the point is to get into a groove and stay there for a while, exploring the musical space. That makes slower tracks like "Sir Psycho Sexy" absolutely drag in a gameplay setting; "Really?" asked one of our players at the fourth reprise of the ending riff. Tracks like "I Could Have Lied" — cool to chill to when just listening — went nowhere interesting. Even "Under the Bridge" lacked that special something for everyone but the bass player.

FINAL VERDICT: Bassists, you absolutely want this album. Drummers, you only want this if you're good. And since some of the slower jams drag on too long, a full album purchase isn't necessarily the wisest call; you might be better off picking and choosing the tracks that tickle your funky fancy.