How broad and narrow is the market for CD and vinyl box sets?
Broad enough that this year's releases include collections of music by The Beatles, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Madonna, Pink Floyd, Flaming Lips, The Notorious B.I.G., The Beach Boys, jazz piano giant Ahmad Jamal and Peggy Lee, among others.
Narrow enough that there are also new sets featuring the music of such worthy but such decidedly obscure artists as Caravan, Bridget St. John, C.V.E., The Milkshakes, Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera and the Keef Hartley Band (which still ranks as one of the least-known acts to perform at the 1969 Woodstock festival).
In between come such curios as Al "Year of the Cat" Stewart's "The Admiralty Lights: Complete Studio, Live and Rare 1964-2009." The 50-CD set has a limited release of 2,000 copies worldwide — and a price tag of $333.73.
Here is a look at some of the many box sets released over the past year.
John Adams, "Collected Works"
From concertos, chamber works and symphonies to choral works, operettas and wildly ambitious operas, John Adams has distinguished himself as one of America's most prolific and singular living composers.
Released to celebrate his 75th birthday, this comprehensive box set includes 39 CDs that span Adams' remarkably expansive, five-decade recording career. It also contains a Blu-ray disc with his groundbreaking 1987 opera, "Nixon in China."
The set additionally has such standout operas by Adams as "The Death of Klinghoffer" and "Doctor Atomic." And it includes such landmark works as "Harmonielehre" "Shaker Loops" and the jazz-inspired "City Noir." The majority of the music documents Adams' half-century as a recording artist for Nonesuch Records, along with five albums he made for Deutsche Grammophon and other labels. The result is an unusually deep dive into the work of a composer who is still working steadily as he forges ahead into new artistic terrain.
$131.60. Available at record stores and amazon.com.
Blondie, "Against The Odds: 1974-1982"
With charismatic singer Debbie Harry at the fore, Blondie pivoted through multiple musical chapters, from garage-rock, girl-group pop and punk to New Wave, disco, reggae and hip-hop (the band's 1981 hit, "Rapture," was the first song with rapping to top the Billboard pop singles charts).
Thirty of the 125 tracks in this handsomely packaged, eight-CD box set are released here for the first time. It is these previously unheard early demo tracks and assorted rarities that will entice Blondie devotees. The inclusion of a 120-page discography and a 144-page hardback book are additional incentives.
$93.08. Available at record stores and amazon.com.
David Bowie, "A Divine Symmetry (An Alternate Journey Through Hunky Dory)"
David Bowie became a star with 1972's "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars." But he first established himself as a truly promising artist of vision with 1971's "Hunky Dory." It was his fourth studio album, the first to feature his Spiders From Mars band and his most intriguing outing up to that time.
This four-CD/one-Blu-ray disc set compiles studio recordings — including 48 previously unreleased tracks (some arresting, some meh) — and demo versions of "Hunky Dory" songs, along with live recordings and BBC radio sessions. Sparked by such classic songs as "Changes," "Life on Mars?" and "Queen Bitch," it documents the sound of an artist who was quickly finding his feet, bursting with ideas and eager to capture them.
"Divine Symmetry" does exactly that. It captures Bowie experimenting, hitting musical dead ends, then trying different approaches. His failures, a number of which are included here, are intriguing for precisely that reason.
The writing of good songs, never mind great ones, is usually the result of the misfires and duds that preceded them. The creation of "Hunky Dory" came only after a series of bumps and recalibrations. This box set is a vivid reminder that perseverance can be just as essential as talent.
$113.99. Available at record stores and amazon.com.
Ahmad Jamal, "Emerald City Nights — Live at the Penthouse, 1963-1964 & 1965-1966"
Pianist Ahmad Jamal and his trio's 1958 classic live release, "At the Pershing: But Not For Me," was one of the first jazz albums to sell more than a million copies.
The group could swing with elegance and verve, and its ingenious use of space and silences earned an instant admirer in Miles Davis, Indeed, the trumpeter soon began playing some of the same songs feature on "At the Pershing" — most notably "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top" — in a similarly spare and lyrical style. Jamal, Davis wrote in his 1989 autobiography, "knocked me out with his concept of space, his lightness of touch, his understatement, and the way he phrases notes and chords and passages."
The two-volume "Emerald City Nights — Live at the Penthouse" was recorded at a ground-floor Seattle nightclub that hosted Jamal and his band on a number of occasions. Each two-CD volume showcases Jamal's unique combination of harmonic sophistication and playfulness, his pinpoint dynamic control and ability to turn on a dime.
Jamal performs with four different bands over the course of these four CDs and he never fails to impress. He rips through "Johnny One Note," deftly adds a Bach-like fugue to "Minor Adjustments" and breathes new life into his classic "Poinciana." In each instance, the master pianist demonstrates his ability to inject each note he plays with fresh vitality, to dazzle without ever seeming to show off.
Jamal, 92, retired from performing in 2020, but supervised the compiling of "Emerald City Nights — Live at the Penthouse." Here's hoping more vintage live releases by the pianist will follow.
$24.88 per volume. Available at records stores and at amazon.com.
The Kinks, "Muswell Hillbillies / Everybody's in Show-Biz, Everybody's a Star" 50th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set
Weighing in at 8 pounds, this voluminous box set chronicles one of England's greatest rock bands of the 1960s as it starts a new chapter in the early 1970s. Following the addition of keyboardist John Gosling as a full-time member, The Kinks produced two albums, the country-tinged "Muswell Hillbillies" and the half-live, half studio-recorded "Everybody's in Show-Biz."
Both were commercial flops, despite boasting such standout songs as "Celluloid Heroes" and the gender-bending "Lola," two gems by head-Kink Ray Davies. Both albums grew more appealing over time. The box set contains four CDs, six colored vinyl albums, a 52-page hardcover book, a Blu-ray disc and more.
$174.98. Available at record stores and amazon.com.
Little Feat, "Waiting for Columbus" Super Deluxe Edition
Few bands can match Little Feat when it comes to creating first-rate music that both defined and transcended its time — and when it comes to enduring tumult and tragedy. The group's blend of rock, blues, funk, country, folk and New Orleans-styled R&B was as distinctive as it was propulsive, especially on a concert stage.
The vibrant legacy the Los Angeles-bred Little Feat created in its prime is celebrated anew on the eight-CD, deluxe edition of "Waiting for Columbus." Recorded at concerts in London and Washington, D.C., it was originally released in 1978 as a live double-album with the five-piece Tower of Power brass section on some selections. By the end of that year, Little Feat had disintegrated, nine years after being launched.
This set includes a remastered two-CD version of the original album, which was first reissued in 2006 with 10 bonus tracks. The real allure is the three additional two-CD live sets, all previously unreleased except for a single song, all recorded on the same 1977 tour and presented here — free of any studio overdubs — in their often-heady entirety.
$58.95. Available at record stores and amazon.com.
Madonna, "Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones"
The good news for Madonna is that she is the only artist who has topped Billboard magazine's Dance Club Songs Chart 50 times. In fact, she's the only artist to have topped any of Billboard's many national charts 50 times, a feat memorialized on this three-CD collection of remixed versions of those hits.
While vocal prowess has never been her strong suit, Madonna is undeniably a master of self-promotion and image. And she has no equals when it comes to transforming underground dance music trends often born in Black gay and Latinx nightclubs — "Vogue" is a key example — into mainstream hits for a mass audience.
Not coincidentally, "Vogue" is interpolated on "Break My Soul (The Queen's Remix)," a standout song on Beyoncé 's new album, "Renaissance." The key difference is that — rather than using the song to cite such Hollywood film legends as Greta Garbo and Marlon Brando, as Madonna did on "Vogue" — Beyoncé give shout-outs on "Break My Soul" to more than two-dozen pioneering female Black music artists (from Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Nina Simone to Whitney Houston and Santigold), as well as to House of Balenciaga, House of Aviance and other ballroom houses where voguing came of style more than 40 years ago.
The bad news about "Finally Some Love: 50 Number Ones," at least for all but Madonna's most devoted fans, is that would be a much more effective album if it was trimmed down to a single CD. It would still be flawed, but not nearly as much.
To further compound matters, she curiously favors remixes by such marginally skilled collaborators as producers Offer Nissim, Bob Sinclair, Deep Dish, LMFAO and the lone-named Sasha. The result on "Finally Some Love: 50 Number Ones" is an uneven hodgepodge that finds Madonna doing a disservice to her fans and her legacy.
$19.02. Available at record stores and amazon.com.
Joni Mitchell, "The Asylum Years (1972-1975)"
The third chronologically sequenced Joni Mitchell box set to be released since 2020, "The Asylum Years" offers three of her studio albums in remastered form — "For the Roses," "Court and Spark" and "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" — along with her 1974 live double-album "Miles of Aisles."
With the exception of "For the Roses," each features former San Diego drummer John Guerin (now deceased) spearheading a first-rate band of jazz veterans. Together, they helped Mitchell stretch creatively to hone the increasingly sophisticated and intricate music she was creating.
The absence of any previously unreleased material is a disappointment. However, it's also a reflection of the fact that Mitchell — who this summer performed her first full-length concert in 22 years — knew exactly what she was aiming for and was not one for noodling in the recording studio.
$37.79. Available at record stores and amazon.com.
The Notorious B.I.G., "Life After Death" 25th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition
Released just one month after the fatal 1997 shooting of New York rapper Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace — who recorded as The Notorious B.I.G. — "Life After Death" became the first album by any artist in any genre to yield two songs that topped the charts posthumously.
This hefty set contains three remastered vinyl albums and five 12-inch 45 RPM singles. The absence of previously unreleased material is a minus and only staunch fans will want to hear both the vocal and instrumental versions of "Nasty Boy," "Going Back To Cali," "Mo Money Mo Problems" and "Kick in the Door."
Even so, "Life After Death" is a handsomely packaged aural document of a jazz-inspired rapper whose legacy still looms large, a quarter-century after he died at the age of 24.
$122.56 Available at record stores and amazon.com.
Joe Strummer, "002: The Mescaleros Years"
How do you follow up being in a band as mighty as The Clash? That was the daunting challenge facing Joe Strummer after The Clash imploded in 1986 and his punk-rock fireball era ended. He spent the next few years mostly doing film soundtracks and some acting, released his first solo album, 1989's "Earthquake Weather," and then went another decade before making his second solo album.
Strummer died in 2002 at the age of 50. Released to coincide with what would have been his 70th birthday, "002: The Mescalero Years" includes the first two albums he made with The Mescaleros, his first and only post-Clash band. It also includes 2003's "Streetcore," which was completed posthumously by two of his former Mescaleros alums, along with a fourth album of demos, outtakes and odds and ends.
Available in both CD and vinyl album sets, "002" captures Strummer's renewed enthusiasm for making music that drew almost equally from rock, reggae, folk and techno, with a smattering of cumbia. Alas, his second act ended, just as Strummer was hitting his stride again, with his untimely death. The lovingly assembled "002" underscores what was lost.
$61.99. Available at record stores and amazon.com.
Wadada Leo Smith, "String Quartets Nos. 1-12"
Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith counts drum giant Jack DeJohnette, the way left-of-center rock band Deerhoof and Pulitzer Prize-winning San Diego composer and pianist Anthony Davis among his many collaborators. Smith's music on this seven-CD set serves as a potent reminder of how expansive and laser-focused his music can be.
As a key member of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in the 1960s and '70s, he helped forge an artist path all his own. In the liner notes to "String Quartets No. 1-12," he cites such diverse influences as Debussy, Shostakovich, Ornette Coleman, B.B. King and Muddy Waters.
Using traditional and nontraditional notation, Smith's music makes vivid connections between — to cite just some examples — Bartok and the blues, gospel music and abstraction, precision and freewheeling improvisation, lyricism and atonality.
It can be a lot to take in but is well worth the effort. And in the RedKoral Quartet and such guest artists as Davis on piano, Alison Bjorkedal on harp and Thomas Buckner on vocals, Smith has collaborators who eagerly and expertly help realize his vision.
$102.47. Available at record stores and amazon.com.
Wilco, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" Super Deluxe Edition
Wilco's landmark fourth album, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," was released just one week after the tragic events of 9/11. Had the band retired then and there, its legacy would still be intact today. Happily, Wilco is still vital, still active, still evolving.
This eight-CD set (also available on vinyl) is a testament to the band's ability to grow even — make that, especially — as Wilco's world was beset with upheaval. For starters, the band's record company, Reprise, refused to release "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" on the grounds that it represented too radical a shift from Wilco's previous roots-rocking albums. Moreover, the band's drummer was fired and replaced, while its co-founder, Jay Bennett, left soon after.
Such upheaval could have proved insurmountable. But Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy and his fellow musicians seemed to know they were making something truly special. And "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" — whose evolution is chronicled in the 2002 film "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," co-produced by former San Diegan Gary Hustwit — is a masterwork.
Eerie, enigmatic, experimental and enticing, the album's 11 songs sound both fresh and world-weary, carefully constructed and disorienting. Those seeming contradictions make "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" a welcome anomaly.
The addition of 82 previously unreleased tracks allows listeners to hear what are essentially different iterations of the album that finally was released. The surprises that lurk around every corner are multiplied here. And the inclusion of an 82-page book and conversations with Tweedy, drummer Glenn Kotche and producer Jim O'Rourke provide welcome insight.
$76.24. Available at record stores and amazon.com.
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