worst ever box sets:

ok - my deffinitive vote goes to Billie Holiday's latest 6 disc set, "The Complete Verve Studio Master Takes".

In all my years of collecting music I have never come accross such absolutley horrid packaging, useless and downright unflattering fotos and topping it all off, the WORST EVER box packaging arrangement I have ever seen to date.

I am thinking of selling it and buying the 10 disc edition instead - folks @ Verve: I hope you have someone reading these posts...


:thumbsdn: :thumbsdn: :thumbsdn:

 

For packaging, The Beatles Capitol Box had a lot of room for improvement. One needs to be very careful or else you can have CD's spilling all over the place. The booklet wasn't anything to write home about either. They should have used Bruce Spizer's booklet. It would have been nice to include The Beatles Story and the instrumentals from A Hard Day's Night soundtrack too. Other than that, I like the box.

 

The Diana Ross box- widely known for horrid sound.

 

Gang of Four - 100 Flowers Bloom. Not so much a box set (though it is a three CDs) but a "Best Of" with some out-takes and rarities... all sounding like bright and edgy! Very poorly done by Rhino. Nice packaging though...

 

Beatles box set (Capitol).... what for a waste!!!

 

I found The Door Complete Studio Recordings could have been manufactured better. I like the idea of cds in sleaves and digipacks like the original lps, but I found it hard to remove the cds from the box they came in.

 

I nominate AC/DC's Bonfire box set. The 3 live CD's are fine but the 4th rarities disc starts out OK but includes two songs from standard, non-rare CD's. There was plenty of room to include the many songs not easily available such as Cold Hearted Man, Stick Around, Love Song, R.I.P., Fling Thing...etc. And to add insult to injury, they throw in Back in Black without any bonus tracks, which any AC/DC fan who is interested in a rarities box set will almost certainly have.

Mark

 

OK, my copy has only 2 discs...is there really a 3-CD version?

 

In terms of packaging, that Bill Evans Verve boxed set in the pre-rusted steel box takes the cake...Aesthetically it might be kind of cool, but practically speaking, it's horrible.

Kwad

 

The Doors 1997 box.

 

The sound was better than I could have expected, but the packaging was cheap, cheap, cheap.

The Beatles were NEVER about cheapness, remember that Capitol?

 

Beatles Box Set??

 

The problem with the Beatles Box package is that SH Forum members don't, as a general rule, don't think of throwing anything away. And although it's still a cheaply done package, the sleeve is meant to be thrown away and the insides folded so that it will fit nicely alongside your other discs. The Louis Armstrong Hot 5's and 7's also came packaged inside a disposable cardboard sleeve. If you disagree, fine, but it's still the way to keep the discs from falling out all the time, and I can guarantee it's the way the package was intended. Where Capitol also goofed was in neglecting to put the name of the record on the spine.

 

you're right, my goof ... it was the insert that I saw! what do you think of the new release, Return the Gift? I found it with the extra ep on the outside and the double-disc inside (remixes of the actual CD). I like it a lot even though I have all the original LPs.
Seems that they played here with a lot more speed/drive and sonically it is way more bottom end and slam.

 

Uh, I don't think so.... if I get rid of the outer sleeve then there's NOTHING WHATSOEVER keeping these discs from flying out of the inner package. I can fold the insides but there's nothing keeping them secure and discs still fly out. I don't think the outer sleeve was meant to be discarded at all.

 

We only had about 683 threads on this last year

Do a search on "Beatles Capitol" or just "Capitol". Some fun reading that makes religious and politcal discussions look civil by comparison. Enjoy!

 

Probably number one on my "I Went To An Expensive Design School" exhibit of impractical CD packaging. Others include:

Miles Davis - The "Metal Spine" boxes (Sony)
Each installment in Sony's otherwise commendable comprehensive reissue series comes in a nicely compact, obviously labored-over book that looks terrific on your CD shelves -- until you try to pry the discs from their bound-in paperboard sleeves or read the liner notes. I have successfully read the notes after removing all the discs, but the packaging does does not invite revisits.

Talking Heads - ONCE IN A LIFETIME (Rhino)
Almost unshelvable book-style box measuring three jewel boxes laid side-to-side, with the discs enclosed in tight paperboard LP-style sleeves. Compounding this ergonomic travesty is the artwork, doubtless some ARTFORUM favorite whose paintings feature lots of exposed genitals. And they wonder why people called them aesthetes playing at rock and roll.

Various Artists - GOODBYE BABYLON (Dust-To-Digital)
CDs in rough finish paper sleeves enclosed in a wooden box, the lid of which may not slide easily depending on the humidity. There's also raw cotton balls inside to remind you . . . that you hate design schools?

Various Artists - ONE KISS LEADS TO ANOTHER (Rhino)
Contents included in a half-scale hat box, which is still freakin' huge.

 

The older RCA/Bluebird edition of the 3 CD Duke Ellington BLANTON-WEBSTER BAND material. Sonically by far the worst boxed set I've ever heard. NoNoised so severely that it sounded like you were listening to the music coming to you through a wall from another room, while having several layers of cheesecloth wrapped around your head.

 

The recent Al Stewart box-Just Yesterday.Almost $100 and all previously released songs.

 

The Nirvana box set was a major disappointment - put together sloppily by management people who have no idea what the hard core fans want.

 

Two of the Worst Box Sets IMO,

Moody Blues: Time Traveller (too bright)
Abba Box (old set) (too bright)

 

I was never impressed with the original 1994 KANSAS boxed set. I expected plenty of extras and it was only a 2 CD set.

And as a general rule, I don't mind live versions of songs on a boxed set as long as they are IN ADDITION to studio tracks as opposed to INSTEAD OF.

 

Columbia's CD release of the complete Bessie Smith. Since they had done so well with that clunky box for the award-winning Robert Johnson set, they decided to repeat it with their Bessie release. However, while the complete RJ needed two discs, Bessie required a lot more. So they released her sides in five volumes of clunky boxes, two discs each. Worse yet, each disc is about LP-length, 45 minutes. They could've done it with far fewer CDs. And sound-wise, they've since been surpassed by the Frog label.

And they used the same can't-store-with-the-rest-of-your-CDs box for other artists as well, Mahalia Jackson at least. I have seven of these ugly boxes in my collection, all hiding in a closet near my CD collection.

LP-sized boxes don't get stored normally either, but some bother me than others. The complete Charlie Parker on Verve (though since re-released as a CD-sized box) is ten discs. I'm okay with that. But the Bo Diddly Chess Box is also LP-sized and has only two discs. That's just a waste of space.

 

Fletcher Henderson's A Study In Frustration....both the 1961 Columbia Box and the 1990's Sony CDs.

Identically great packaging/photos/notes/programming in both, identically abominable edits and EQ in 28 of the 64 tracks.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=961562&postcount=53

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=1007973&postcount=59

 

The Little Feat boxed set for the mere reason that the first day I got it home and opened it the packaging completely fell apart on me, and I had to take it back. Otherwise it was sensational!