Boxed Sets: Finding a Playlist in a Box

While I have an extensive CD library, and spend a fair amount of time and money on music, I generally don’t shell out the cash to buy box sets. But I stop by my local indie music store, Easy Street, fairly often to peruse their shelves to see what’s new.

Not familiar with box sets? They are usually collections of an artist, an era, a genre or of a label’s recordings. They are a great way to revisit or familiarize yourself with bands, musicians or music styles. The box set anthologies out there are like your favorite mix tape (or CD or Playlist, as the case may be)–an assembly of hits and hidden gems that will keep you humming or even singing along American Idol-style in your car or living room.Two of my favorite box sets of late have been Left of the Dial and The Brit Box.

Left of the Dial: Dispatches from the 80’s Underground is a collection of indie college radio hits. It takes me back to my high school years when The Cure, The Smiths and Depeche Mode were always on in heavy rotation. It was a time when I stayed up late to watch 120 Minutes on MTV to see videos from Robyn Hitchock to Julian Cope to New Order. I can relive these days with four discs and a glossy booklet with photos and stories from these bands in their heyday.

The Brit Box: UK Indie, shoe-gaze and Brit-pop gems of the last millennium box set is another 4 disks of the United Kingdom’s pop darlings from 1984-1999. You can get your Brit-pop fix with Pulp’s “Common People,” “Only Shallow” by My Bloody Valentine and “Lucky Man” by The Verve.

So those are just a couple of the box sets you can find at the Library. Share some of your favorite box set finds so I can put them in my holds queue!

~Misha S

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4 responses to “Boxed Sets: Finding a Playlist in a Box”

  1. David W

    The pre-cursor to Left of the Dial is also good: “No Thanks!: The 70’s Punk Rebellion.” I love those Rhino boxes, and I think my fave is a five-disc set called “Supernatural Fairy Tales: The Progressive Rock Era.” It is pretty hard to find, and SPL doesn’t own it (though they do have the fine if hyperbolically-named 3 disc set “The Best Prog Rock Album in the World – Ever!”). But for folks not into 10 minute electronic organ solos, a better bet – in the SPL collection – is “What It Is! Funky Soul And Rare Grooves.” Some very tight, alright, outtasight instrumentals for that funky pool party (“Wah Wah Man,” “Flute Thing”), and great mind-flipping covers like Labelle doing Cat Stevens’ “Moonshadow,” Ananda Shankar’s sitar “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” and Jack McDuff’s “The Shadow of Your Smile.” And when was the last time you heard the Bar-Kays do “Soul Finger” !!!???

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  2. David W

    I think an additional word of warning is in order, which is: if you go to the library catalog to start browsing various Rhino boxes and other recordings, you may want to limit your search to just the CDs. If you fail to do this, you may just wind up placing holds on waaaaay too many of their DVD reprisals of things like Gumby and Pokey, Sigmund and the Sea Monster, H.R. Puff’nStuff, Lidsville (with the imitable Charles Nelson Reilly), and Land of the Lost (Come on, Gen Jonesers, sing it with me: “Marshall Will and Holly, on a routine expedition, met the greeeeatest earthquake ever knooooown…”)

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  3. Abby

    David, I’m in total agreement: Rhino box sets are fantastic. They have a real talent for putting together collections that include the most amazing pop songs you’ve never heard. And their liner notes are always stellar! One of my recent favorites is “One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found” which is a remarkable collection of 50s & 60s girl group singles that are pure gold. Of course it’s got the big names like The Shirelles, The Shangri-Las, Little Eva, etc — but what’s really outstanding are the tracks by lesser known artists (or artists who later became famous in other ways). Examples include: “Needle in A Haystack” — the Velvettes, “He’s Got the Power” — The Exciters, “Don’t Drop Out” — Dolly Parton, and two tracks by Carole King that are among my absolute favorite songs ever. Of course you can’t go wrong with any of the Nuggets series from Rhino, either.

    But don’t just check out the compilation box sets — the library owns many excellent artist box sets that are a great way to explore the full breadth of a performer’s repertoire. Some of my favorites include: “In Search of the Center of the Universe” (a Cat Stevens retrospective which includes an entire disc of his early “Swinging London” era pop — think “Here Comes My Baby”), “The Complete Hank Williams” (which is exactly as advertised — the early demos and radio performances are special highlights) and “Retro,” a great collection of New Order hits and rare performances that is organized thematically (“Pop”, “Club,” “Fan,” and “Live” are the self-explanatory titles for each disc).

    Happy listening!

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  4. misha

    Thanks you guys! Great info and recommendations, too!

    Reply

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