"STADIUM ARCADIUM" BY RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS; WARNER BROS.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, with can-do producer Rick Rubin in top form these days, do the near impossible by releasing a viable double album that doesn't make listeners wish it had been pruned into a single disc.

The inspired "Stadium Arcadium," the band's ninth studio set, finds the Peppers at a peak where vocalist Anthony Kiedis continues to improve as a singer, the agile rhythm section of Flea and Chad Smith hit hard Prince-worthy funk ("Charlie") and sublime post-"Californication" balladry in "Snow (Hey Oh)" with equal aplomb, and guitarist John Frusciante cuts loose with jet-engine-sized solos on a batch of rock cuts such as "Turn It Again." That one, the set's penultimate track, should have been the closer in that regard to bring this diverse, ambitious and shockingly cohesive mammoth to an invigorating conclusion.

"SURPRISE" BY PAUL SIMON; WARNER BROS.

Paul Simon is one of the all-time great pop songwriters, on par with Bob Dylan in the poetry vein and his superior in crafting warm, engaging, harmonious melodies.

He has also released fewer clunkers than Dylan who, when he's bad, is truly bad. In five decades, stretching into his Simon & Garfunkel '60s work and a solo career begun in grand form in 1971, Simon's facility has failed him entirely only once (the "Capeman" project in the late '90s).

It fails him once again on "Surprise," a collaboration with avant- garde producer Brian Eno (U2). The problem isn't so much Simon's lyrics this time, but his melodies lack their usual grace. Only "War Time Prayers," with repeat plays, reveals some hint of Simon's old melodic craft at work.

The rest, from Eno's abrasive and overused soundscapes to the wet blanket feel of Simon's voice, feels indulgent and dull.