Top ten music box set reissues of 2023 that I couldn’t afford
The Complete Budokan 1978… the third official Dylan release this year.
Music box sets have gone bonkers! From a 17CD Grateful Dead set to a 9LP box set for the Velvet Underground’s Loaded album (which already had a ‘Fully Loaded’ edition in 1997, then a 6CD deluxe reissue in 2015 for its 45th anniversary), box sets are getting more expansive and more expensive year on year. Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon 50th anniversary edition requires a whole bookcase to store it, consisting as it does of two CDs, two LPs, two Blu-rays, one DVD, two books and two 7” singles and costing over £200. The Who’s Who’s Next 50th anniversary box set contains 10 CDs, a Blu-ray and a graphic novel; it costs £229.
I have no interest in 90% of most music box sets (they are all cynical reissues of previous albums, repackaged, enlarged and overpriced) but being weak, there are some I desire.
1. Bob Dylan: The Complete Budokan 1978
£150-£200 for 4 CDs
Conventional Dylan wisdom says the 1978 gigs didn’t hit their stride until later in the year; the original Budokan LP – the first leg of the tour – was released back in 1978 for the Japanese market, as presumably this anniversary edition is too. In a slipcase it contains a book, a bunch of facsimile memorabilia and 4 CDs, containing 36 tracks not released on the original Bob at Budokan, which wasn’t that good either. (It’s telling that the mp3 is only £12.99, the other £178 is for the packaging.) Anyway, this is the third Dylan release of the year, after The Bootleg Series Vol. 17 and Shadow Kingdom.
2. David Sylvian – Do You Know Me Now?
£200 for 10CD box set
Compiles everything Sylvian – former lead singer of Japan – released on his Samadhisound label from 2003 to 2014. Sylvian can only be compared to Mark Hollis and Scott Walker for starting a career in mainstream pop and veering off pretty much as leftfield as you can go.
3. Dream Syndicate – The Days of Wine and Roses (Expanded 4 CD Bookback Edition)
£30 for 4 CDs
Actually quite a reasonable price but this limited edition sold out pretty fast.
4. AR Kane – A.R. Kive
£130 for 3 LPs
Collects AR Kane’s – an underrated British shoegazing duo from the 1980s – three albums into one LP box set.
5. The Replacements – Tim (Let It Bleed Edition)
£99 for 4 CD and 1 LP set
The band’s unsatisfying sounding 1985 album given a ‘sonic overhaul’.
6. Teardrop Explodes: Culture Bunker
£67.99 for 6 CDs / £129.99 for 7 LPs
Compiles a wealth of unheard material from 1978-1982.
7. Pharoah Sanders – Pharoah
£54.99 for 2 LPs
Sanders’ first LP remastered with a booklet.
8. Acetone – I’m Still Waiting
£266 for 11 LPs
Limited edition, career-spanning box set for a band no one’s heard of.
9. Ride – 4 EPs
£37.99 for 2 LPs
Compiles Ride’s first four EPs onto two LPs.
10. Neutral Milk Hotel – The Collected Works of Neutral Milk Hotel
£170 for 4 LPs
4 LP box set for a band who only released two albums; nevertheless, I love Neutral Milk Hotel – 1998’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is one of my favourite albums, and it looks a sumptuous set.
And reissues of 2023 I could afford…
• Folk Implosion – Music for KIDS, CD
I loved the film Kids when I first saw it in New Orleans, but it was the music that stuck with me, opening up a world of lo-fi that included Sebodoh, Slint, Daniel Johnston and Folk Implosion.
• Slapp Happy – Sort Of (50th Anniversary Edition), LP
A quirky avant-garde band formed in Hamburg, this is a welcome re-release of their first album.
• Alain Goraguer – La Planète Sauvage, Expanded Original Soundtrack, CD
Savage Planet is one of my favourite films ever and the influential soundtrack has been released and expanded. Goraguer died aged 91 earlier this year, and also released is a vinyl collection of his previously-unreleased porno film soundtracks with a very saucy cover indeed.
• Bryan Ferry – Mamouna, 3 CD Deluxe Edition
Ferry’s 1994 solo album has been reissued along with the ‘lost’ album Horoscope and various outtakes.
• Hidden Cameras – The Smell Of Our Own (20th Anniversary Edition), LP
Best gay Christian rock album ever, re-released on two LPs with bonus demos and live tracks.
• Arthur Russell – Picture of Bunny Rabbit, CD
Arthur Russell only released one album in his short lifetime – he died aged 40 from AIDS-related illnesses in 1992 – but since then his statue has only grown, and the influential avant-garde composer, musician and singer has had over a dozen albums released in recent years.
Previously on Barnflakes
• Quality criteria
• Top ten photography books I want but can’t afford
• Top ten records I would have bought in Totnes if I had any money
• Top 10 CD Box Sets
• Music Vs. Film and CDs Vs. DVDs
• Greatest Hits