CARLTON FLETCHER: OK, so I still buy CDs … the music’s worth the grief

I’m so stuck in my ways.

— Fetty Wap

The women in my house, both of whom are computer/technology geeks, tease me mercilessly about being one of the few people left in the world who still buys CDs.

“You do know you can download those songs and listen to them on your phone?” I hear on the regular.

It does no good when I try to tell them that the quality of compressed digital music is no match even for CDs, which — truth be told — are no match themselves for vinyl.

(I’ve read and had explained to me by music techno-geeks who probably know such stuff that the lowest lows and the highest highs on a recording are lost in the compression process for digital music so that listeners don’t really get to hear music the way its creators intended. When I tell them that, they just laugh, telling me my attempt to explain anything of a technical nature is “cute.”)

To their consternation, I actually had enough money this weekend to buy two CDs (trust me, that’s extremely rare). My selections: Paul Simon’s “Stranger to Stranger” and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “The Getaway.”

(Alas, I know they’ve both been out for a while, but if you’ll read that sentence up there a little more carefully, you’ll note that it’s been a while since I’ve had enough expendable income to purchase such non-necessities as music … and new shoes … and lunch.)

I haven’t taken the opportunity to listen to the Simon album yet (I don’t give cursory attention to new music; I savor it), but I’ve listened to “The Getaway” enough times to list it as an automatic classic. Before it’s over, dare I say it, this one may end up ranking right up there with “Californication” and “Stadium Arcadium” among the Rock Hall of Famers’ best works.

And that’s saying a lot.

The Peppers’ 2011 album “I’m With You,” the first showcasing new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, was an exceptional collection, and one of its songs (“Rain Dance Maggie”) is one of the top four or five songs of the 2000s. “The Getaway” is better.

Starting with the opening title song, which will challenge Zayn Malik’s “Pillow Talk” for best song of the year honors, “The Getaway” grabs hold and doesn’t let go. That opener, which features Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton — who also produced the album — on synthesizer that would fit nicely in the psychedelic ’60s and ’70s, sets the bar high for the much-anticipated follow-up to “I’m With You.”

That the band delivers not on occasion, but throughout the 13 songs of the album, is a testament to its members’ musical mastery.

Bassist Flea does his funked-up Flea thing throughout the album — showing off a bit on the wonderful “Dark Necessities” — and drummer Chad Smith — one of rock’s most underrated musicians — kicks “We Turn Red” off with a blast that reminds everyone that he and Flea are perhaps modern rock’s most perfect rhythm section.

Klinghoffer’s guitar work is at times subtle (“Goodbye Angels,” “Feasting on the Flowers”), at times frenetic (“The Hunter,” “Go Robot”), proving that he’s the perfect replacement for John Frusciante, who decided he’d had enough and parted ways with the Peppers amicably back in 2009. And Anthony Kiedis’ voice has gotten only better with time.

In addition to the amazing Burton, “The Getaway” also features Elton John, who plays piano on “Sick Love,” a song he and writing partner Bernie Taupin penned along with the members of the band. All of these elements help make this certainly the best album of the year, and one of the best I’ve heard in a while.

So maybe I’m opening myself up to ridicule by admitting that I went out and bought actual CDs over the weekend. And maybe me and the three or four others who still buy CDs are “cute” or “quaint” or “dinosaurs.” Whatev. All I know is “The Getaway” has already brought me way more joy than any computer app you can name.

My ego will take the trade-off.

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected]. Follow @ABH_Fletcher on Twitter.