I’m With You,” the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ latest effort, is not a bad album. It’s just, well, not good.

The problem is that the band is caught between making two entirely different albums at once, and two albums they’ve already done before. “I’m With You” is a strange, almost paradoxical cross between the gentle melodies and laid-back, subtle funk of “Californication” and the aggression and energetic, punk-funk sounds of “Blood Sugar Sex Magik.” It’s in this area where the album has major issues.

That’s not to say there isn’t any good. In fact, some of the work is the best they’ve done in years. But they’re at their best when they’re trying to be a new band, beyond the iconic sounds of the past.

From the opening piano of “Happiness Loves Company,” it’s immediately captivating. Their usual catchy, energetic selves. It’s everything the Red Hot Chili Peppers have built themselves on.

But that song doesn’t come until close to the album’s end. Other than “Brendan’s Death Song,” it’s hard to find a truly successful song on the album before that point.

“Police Station,” “Even You Brutus?” and “Meet Me at the Corner” are all excellent. Really excellent. These songs exemplify what the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ new album should have been in its entirety. A meaningful and heartfelt album undeniably worthy of their legacy.

Unfortunately, most of the album is spent trying to recapture sounds that are long gone. Nothing embodies this better than the album’s first single, “The Adventures of Raindance Maggie.”

After beginning with a more aggressive groove, reminiscent of an updated “Blood Sugar Sex Magik,” Anthony Kiedis’ vocals come in, and he just sounds bored. The melody seems completely phoned in, like he’s done it all before. And he has. For 27 some-odd years now.

Even as the song bursts open into a grander, quasi-Californication-esque melody, it still feels lacking, like a pale imitation of the band they were 10 years ago.

And it’s quite the catchy chorus too; arguably one of the catchiest choruses of the year, that much can’t be denied. But not in a way that stays with you. Especially ironic for an album titled “I’m With You.”

It seems that the exit of John Frusciante from the band has hurt them badly.

Though his replacement, Josh Klinghoffer, is adequate and plays through his solos and his rhythm parts with the bravado and technical proficiency one would want, he never feels like more than an additional touring guitarist, his previous role in the band, not like an equal contributing member of a band. Not like the heir of John Frusciante he’s supposed to be, who contributed as much to the development of the band’s overall sound as Flea’s otherworldly bass or Kiedis’ unmatchable vocals and laidback vibes.

You only need to relisten to any of the band’s previous work with Frusciante to get the message (the guitar work on “Soul to Squeeze” and “Wet Sand,” the backing vocals on outtake “Quixoticelixer”). The band needs him there to provide his angle, his unique sound.

It’s unfortunate that Anthony Kiedis, at nearly 49 years old, tries in vain to recapture an energy he no longer seems to have. And it’s unfortunate that the band spent so much time working on those songs and releasing them as singles, when the true beauty of the album lies in where the members of the band are now, getting older, slowing down and contemplating life and death.

There are a few songs in there that could have built a masterpiece, which feel truly genuine. Instead, they’ve become hidden in an average, forgettable collection of tracks, a mere assortment of dull echoes of the band that the Red Hot Chili Peppers once were.

GRADE: C