Red Hot Chili Peppers Greatest Hits Vinyl vs Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium

Buy the Greatest Hits if you want one record that covers the band's best-known songs and gets played often. Buy Stadium Arcadium if you already know you like the band and want the full 28-track album as a listening session. Greatest Hits is a single-disc compilation with two new songs; Stadium Arcadium is a double album spread across four LPs in a slipcase box. Owners of both tend to praise the sound and packaging, and the main complaint about Stadium Arcadium is its length and the effort of flipping four records.

• Choose the Greatest Hits if you want the singles, the two new tracks and the shortest path to the band's catalog.
• Choose Stadium Arcadium if you want the whole 2006 album and don't mind four LPs and a lot of flipping.