SUMMER CDS worth money

With the wear and tear that nearly 20 years of countless member changes, strategically-placed tube socks and enough drugs to kill a yak causes, the music world might have forgiven the Red Hot Chili Peppers for failing to deliver a worthy follow-up to 19991s hugely successful Californication. But By the Way is exactly what you would expect from one of the most talented alternative acts around: a perfect mix of Kiedis1 rapid-fire funk, Flea1s energetic slap bass and Frusciante1s six-string mastery. More melodic and intelligent than ever before, RHCP adds an inspired new chapter to an already impressive career. - DAVID WALTERS

What made DJ Shadow1s landmark 1996 debut EndtroducingS such a mindblowing listen was its sense of cohesion. One track flowed effortlessly into the next until the final beat broke 64 minutes later. Not so on Shadow1s new album, The Private Press. Although numerous individual cuts shine, the album lacks the continuity that drove his first offering. The shattering death of 3Blood on the Motorway2 proves that Shadow hasn1t lost the ability to make groundbreaking music, but the altogether goofy and misplaced 3Mashin1 on the Motorway2 shows that he may have forgotten how to make a complete album. - GREG VEIS

Don1t all rock stars wish they could grow old as gracefully as David Bowie? On his new album Heathen, the 21st of his career, the White Duke manages to sound both mature and entirely fresh at the same time<no small feat if you consider the many late-career offerings from even our best rock heroes. Tracks like the wholly creepy 3Sunday2 and the extraterrestrial romp 3I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship2 demonstrate that while Ziggy Stardust may have committed rock and roll suicide years ago, Bowie1s sense of artistic invention continues to thrive without him. - GREG VEIS