I've always thought (or wished) that Bruce had released some kind of album for the 1978 or 1980-81 tours. He might not have been as popular back then, but he sure had a reputation as a live performer and at the very least a concert album would have given people a taste of that.
Cardboard jacket sleeves that are just a leeetle bit too snug. It's not like wearing and breaking in bluejeans!
My only complaint about certain box sets can be the remastering. I never expect them to be complete. If I want complete representation of an artists' output, I will also but their albums separately.
The catalogue of The Smiths is small and easy to compile. They recorded their entire output for one record label and their studio career is a little over 4 years. It is absolutely "won't" rather than "can't", the refusal to do a properly complete edition as this would rule out releases like "The Sound Of The Smiths" and its ability to dangle a few carrots in front of the faithful.
I have (to ) many box-sets. S favorite of mine is Nils Lofotens ten-disc beaty Face the Music. Limiter,numbered and hand-signed by Nils. However great the set is I never understood why they excluded the original version of his Maybe most famous song Keith Don t Go. Instead we ger a blistering version featuring Neil Young. Why not both A great ser anyway
Glaring content omissions and poor mastering are the main disappointments.Sometimes not having the music you want on vinyl or cd is a pain.
If only all box sets could follow the standard set by Jethro Tull. Great sound, great content and a great price.
I didn't buy it, but for The Life & Crimes Of Alice Cooper box set, I was stunned that "Halo of Flies" and "Generation Landslide" weren't included.
I hate the way the discs are jammed into slots in the Nuggets LA and San Francisco box sets. Absolutely reckless and lazy to do it that way. I bought The Who: Maximum R&B set in 1994 but I don't even remember any of the many complaints about it on here. I don't even remember the last time I played it. Time to revisit it.
I didn't know that. Well, maybe I'll reprocess the extra bits into fake stereo, then edit them into the SS mix. Seriously. I'd love to have a stereo mix of the whole thing. (I like the Beatles in mono; but, for the BBs post-1964, gotta be stereo!)
Citizen Steely Dan. Lousy liner notes. One previously unreleased version of a released song. Cropping Rikki intro on first pressing. No other outtakes.
I completely understand people being annoyed when a box set only comes in a version that includes the album on LP. It’s not a format everybody has re-embraced, and there should always be an optical-only version. However, as somebody who has re-embraced vinyl, I prefer a deluxe boxed set be mixed media and not all-LP. Your complaint is not with the concept of mixed-media sets, it’s with the record labels deciding not to release two versions of the set.
Similarly - why was there not been a second volume of the Smiths' Singles box set? Or why didn't it include all the singles?
The Carpenters, From the Top (1991) This four-disc box set has a total time of not quite 205 minutes. The short run time of each disc always irked me. The set could have easily fit on three discs. Or, if each disc were filled to 75 minutes, there could have been an additional 95 minutes of content! Alas, as Cunegonde sang, 'Twas not to be...
The Human League's A Very British Synthesizer Group came in two versions; 2 CD and 3 CD / 1 DVD. The first two discs of the box set are the same as the double CD version - a chronological collection of the band's singles. Except for The Sound Of The Crowd, their breakthrough single in the UK, their first top 20 hit, which is represented by the instrumental b-side version. Even the original 7" version is rather elusive on CD as it is; the version on Dare being a re-recording. Then there was the pricing; the double CD sold for what double CDs tend to sell for; I think it was around £15. But the box with one extra CD (of all previously unreleased material) and a DVD was £100. Only hardcore fans would be interested in the third disc (and probably the fourth) yet they had to pay £85 extra for those 2 discs, and end up with the flawed singles collection which 99% would have owned anyway.
I had a major beef with the Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991 box set regarding the glaring omission of the Live Fox theater version of Free Bird. The set had the demo and studio versions of the song, but not the iconic version that many identify Skynyrd by.
Whining and carping are important coping activities, especially during this past year of the waking nightmare of pandemic, so good on you mates! But I’m more interested in what I consider to be nearly perfect box sets: like the Beatles vinyl mono box, the Grateful Dead Fillmore ‘69 and Complete Europe ‘72 sets, the recent Bobbie Gentry box, the Go-Betweens Vol. 2 box (a dreaded mix of vinyl and CDs, but I for one adore it anyway), the Dylan Tell Tale Signs Bootleg Series Vol. 8, along with box sets that are often excoriated but I love, like the first Buffalo Springfield box and the Byrds box (which sounds fantastic and gives you a stellar Byrds overview despite some weird omissions and the awful reunion tracks). Doesn’t anybody else have some box sets they consider to be more or less fantastic treasures? That are worth praising to the skies rather than nitpicking to death? Uh-oh, looks like I’ve gone seriously off-topic!
I’m hard pressed to think of a single box set I own that doesn’t have one disc that has only been played one time or never, so I have a hard time being annoyed if a set includes DVD or Blu-Ray content that doesn’t particularly interest me. Vinyl, I understand the frustration, because it takes up a lot of space and it’s conceivable that most people don’t have a way to even play it.