Cake I love cake! ;)

Home Town Hero Debut from this Thousand Oaks, California band signed to Maverick. The album blends the spirit of power pop, garage rock and punk with moody alternative pop and balladry. This CD also contains a bonus enhanced track which offers an all access key to unreleased music, videos and an exclusive Home Town Hero website. 12 tracks.

Hootie & the Blowfish Cracked Rear View marks the commercial debut of these college buddies from South Carolina, and it sold an astonishing 13 million copies in its first year of release. With Darius Rucker's ringing baritone and Mark Bryan's muscular guitar framing Jim Sonefeld's bluesy, energetic southern folk rock tunes, it's easy to understand its success: It's the kind of thoroughly likable album people sing along with on the car radio. When Rucker demands, "Stand up and let me see you smile," there's something that feels real and convincing behind it; sure, it's a formula, but a sincere one, and it works over and over again. Songs like "Let Her Cry," "Hold My Hand," and "Running from an Angel" lay down the rhythm for a cohesive, feel-good collection. There may not be a lot of virtuosity behind it, but there's plenty of fun. —Barrie Trinkle

No Doubt No Doubt's 1995 release, Tragic Kingdom, brought Southern California's ska scene to a national stage while elevating the band to star status. An irresistible mix of reggae, punk, and power pop, Tragic Kingdom scored several hits, among them "Spiderwebs," "Just a Girl," and "Don't Speak." Singer Gwen Stefani's looks made the group MTV shoo-ins, but her soaring voice is the real star, as evidenced by such songs as "Happy Now?"—a classic you'll-regret-you-dumped-me anthem that recalls Blondie—and the bouncy "Sunday Morning." Despite recurring themes of pain and regret, Tragic Kingdom manages to somehow feel sunny throughout. —Courtney Kemp

Red Hot Chili Peppers Four-year career hiatuses followed by sprawling double-albums could spell trouble for a band of the Chili Peppers' stature: consider they'd originally recorded enough for three discs. The restless, trouble-plagued outfit that helped break alternative rock into the mainstream with a potent fusion of punk 'n' funk in the '80s finds itself two decades on almost completely devoid of the former's energetic abandon, while the latter's effusive rhythms are considerably subdued over the course of this two-hour, 28-track collection. It's not so much that the Peppers have lost their muscular, often uber-macho edge as they have willfully tamed it in service of mature reinvention here. The mellower, often introspective, if no less potent pop ethos that characterized the crossover hit "Under the Bridge" blossoms fully here on tracks like disc one's "Snow," "Wet Sand," and the jazz-cool of "Hey."

The title track, "Desecration Smile," and "She Looks To Me" finds them venturing further into laid back pop ballad territory, while the tricky rhythms of "Dani California," "Charlie," and "So Much I" eventually kick into familiar top gear on the pop-savvy "Tell Me Baby" and hip-hop seasoned "Storm in a Teacup." It's not that there's a paucity of musical adventure here ("If" and "Animal Bar" finds them wafting into Floydish neo-psychedelia while "Make You Feel Better" seems to channel no less than Joe Jackson) but that it's delivered with a subtlety—and dare we say it?—tasteful musical restraint that's a stark contrast to the band's early, overly overt nature. There's perhaps too much mid-tempo simmering and reflection going on; like most double-albums it could be focused into a much more compelling single disc. But that seems largely beside the Peppers' hooks-over-histrionics point here: an unlikely record to kick back to, and one that both challenges assumptions and eases the band into middle age with an oft languorous, if undeniably savory groove. —Jerry McCulley

Smash Mouth Expounding on the theme from their hit "Walking on the Sun" (from the multiplatinum Fush Yu Mang), the verbose songs on Astro Lounge are filled with examinations of societal ills, personal woes, and other disappointments entailed in this thing known as Humanity. Yes, the album would seem heavy-handed were not the overriding sentiments filtered through Smash Mouth's "Hey, dude, let's party!" brand of musical optimism. Ranging from reggae to lounge to psychedelia to surfer rock to a sort of punk-a-go-go, Smash Mouth's influences have little in common with one another save for one important exception—they all evoke images of personal freedom and defiance of oppression, reminding us that, gee, fighting the Man can actually be raucous good fun! It's been a long time since a band with this much commercial potential could say something thought-provoking and get the party going. On "All Star," Steve Harwell sings, "Only shooting stars break the mold." A fitting prophecy for this outstanding alterna-pop album. —Beth Massa

Will Smith Is Will Smith an important rapper? The kind that deserves the awards, the honors, the accolades that the music industry foists upon him? Well, no. The words corny and safe might be applicable when describing the artist formerly known as the Fresh Prince. But dig this: corny and safe as he may be, why can't you stop singing "Getting Jiggy wit It" or why does your child love "Just the Two of Us," Smith's shameless ode to dads and their kids? Probably because Smith is nothing if not sincere. Yes, the tracks are obvious and leaden, and, no, Method Man won't have any sleepless nights when Smith lets loose with a rhyme. But give him this: Smith comes from the culture, even if he long ago left the streets. —Amy Linden