LIKE a hard-earned thirst, Red Hot Chili Peppers has delivered a veritable slab of hit songs from their latest studio release Stadium Arcadium. For mine, RHCP’s best effort has been Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic, but after the second listen it’s suffice to say Stadium Acradium is the “full house”, with all tickets sold out in two minutes (so to speak). A double release with 14 songs on each album, we are exposed to the Mars version and the Jupiter version. There are no passengers on either album and while there are probably more mellow tunes than the typical red-hot rock songs, the album’s title track is a prime example of how to work a raw edge into a traditional ballad. Again, it’s suffice to say there’s 28 stellar tracks well worth putting into orbit, making the album a must-have for fans and bandwagon-jumpers alike.

– Michael Weaver

SO it’s a kids movie, but there’s still some good tunes on the soundtrack. But be warned, not all 20 tracks on the CD are hits you’ll recognise, as half of them are scores from the movie. So I probably wouldn’t recommend buying it. But if you do get to listen to it, there’s a couple of good ones that go along with the Cars theme, such as Sheryl Crow’s Real Gone or Chuck Berry’s Route 66 (which is on the CD twice as it’s also performed by John Mayer). All of these will have you tapping your feet. But if you want my advice, there’s not enough good tunes on this to go out and buy it. I’d recommend you have a look at what tracks you like and buy them for your iPod.

– SGT Damian Griffin