1. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Stadium Arcadium (Warner Bros.). Producer Rick Rubin's frenetic, skittering sound helps these four eternally Lost Boy punk/funkers stay hungry - and relevant.
The Beatles: Love (Apple/Capitol). "The first Beatles album in 5.1"? Well, that's a bit misleading. Love isn't one of the Beatles' original releases; it's the "cast album" to the Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas, which does use the band's master tapes not only for full songs but also for new segues and mashups.
Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Deutsche Grammophon). In January of 2006, I made it my business (literally) to be in Los Angeles for the first performance to be recorded live at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
