Stadium Arcadium (2CD)

The return of guitarist John Frusciante to the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1998 was a fortuitous development for the band, and kicked off a creative and popular resurgence that saw them making some of their best music and selling it to more listeners than ever. What emerged from this period was a trio of albums (now referred to as their “California trilogy”) that found the band developing its sound away from the purely cracking, funk-influenced likes of “Give It Away,” “Knock Me Down” and “Suck My Kiss,” into an expansive mélange of rock riffs and vocal harmonies that made them occasionally sound like a different band altogether. Honestly, it's unlikely that the Chili Peppers of the late '80s and early '90s were capable of the soul and execution that made Californication (1999) and By The Way (2002) so special.

The trilogy culminated with the sprawling, 28-track STADIUM ARCADIUM in 2006. Initially conceived as three distinct releases, the resulting two-disc set still comes in at a little over two hours, and contains a full range of what the Chili Peppers were capable of as musicians, from gorgeous ballads to stadium rock to deep funk.

The album gained the band seven Grammy Award nominations in 2007 including an award for Best Rock Album and one for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package. Winning five out of seven Grammy Awards, it was the most nominations that the band had garnered in its 24-year career.