With holiday gift-giving season upon us, here are our favorite multisets of the year, perfect for the music nerd with a long attention span in your life. This year’s selection includes expanded reissues of ’90s alt-rock classics and ’80s metal classics to delve deep into fascinating eras in the careers of music greats, epic live sets and career-spanning collections, and much more. A warning: none of this fits in a stocking.
10
Bob Dylan and the Band, “The 1974 Live Recordings”
In January and February 1974, Bob Dylan and the band reunited for 39 shows in 21 cities, his first tour in eight years. The ’74 tour was Dylan’s first arena tour ever – a rock routine that wouldn’t even have been imaginable in 1966. The workload was so heavy – up to five hours of stage time per day – and the novelty of singing in an arena added to a hard party atmosphere. This inevitably showed in the voice; Liner notes author Elizabeth Nelson draws the line between these shows and the audible deterioration of Dylan’s voice. But in the best moments of this 27 CD mammoths Dylan’s mood is expansive. He actively engages with songs like “Gates of Eden” and “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”. What becomes increasingly impressive is how many facets of these and other songs Dylan discovers in one reading after another.
9
The Beatles, “1964 US Albums in Mono”
Strange but true: The Beatles’ American record company decided not to release their albums. Instead, Capitol trimmed the albums so they could produce more of them before this crazy little fad passed. So America got a completely different Beatles catalog than the rest of the world – their original British albums weren’t released here until 1987. The Fab Four had nothing to do with the compilation of their American debut, Meet the Beatles – but even if it went against their artistic intentions, they created a timeless rock ‘n’ roll classic. The Beatles: 1964 US Albums in Mono collects their first seven American LPs on vinyl, through to evergreen collections like Something New and Beatles ’65. (And the less timeless but still charming documentary The Beatles Story.) These mono-vinyl versions finally fix the infamous “pseudo-stereo” effect and echo that Capitol added, making the records finally sound so fabulous, as they always deserved. –Rob Sheffield
8
Weezer, “Blue Album (30th Anniversary Edition)”
A thread dangles from the front of the Weezer 30th anniversary box set. When you pull on it, the album unravels and soon it’s bare demos, early recordings, live recordings, BBC sessions, all wrapped up with the original album in this three CD set. The band have endeavored to provide a 360-degree look at their groundbreaking 1994 debut album, including the full Kitchen Tape demo in the original sequence the band had planned for Weezer. You can hear all the growing pains: the strange, wisely discarded rap-like sample in “Undone (The Sweater Song),” an acoustic “Buddy Holly,” a garage rehearsal in which they cover the Cars’ “Just What I Needed” (what the arrival of the band’s frontman, Ric Ocasek, who produced the Blue Album.
7
Elvis Costello, “King of America & Other Realms”
When Elvis Costello went all-in on proto-Americana in the ’80s on the cover albums Almost Blue and King of America, who would have thought that this would be the beginning of a decades-long on-off romance with roots music? This six-part dive into this part of his legacy includes the album America and the expected rarities from the period (a very different early version of “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” which ended up on Blood and Chocolate), as well as a high-energy show in the Royal Albert Hall in London from 1987, where he let his quasi-rockabilly cat off the leash. The rest of the package includes similarly rootsy tracks from the many albums that followed, like The Delivery Man and his collaboration with New Orleans master Allen Toussaint. Even more surprising about Costello’s enduring love of American music is the seamless connection between these later discs. Whether he’s tackling bluegrass or singing with Rosanne Cash and Kris Kristofferson, he never sounds like an impostor. – David Browne
6
Talking Heads, “Talking Heads: 77 (Super Deluxe Edition)”
Talking Heads dressed like college students on a budget, sang about modern life with an almost eerie sense of detached optimism, and their sound was tense, sparse and nervous, yet strangely welcoming, undeniably catchy and a little funky. The super deluxe edition of their groundbreaking 1977 debut divides the reissue into a four-part LP set with four 7-inch singles; there is also a three CD/Blu-ray version, a two-disc LP version and a digital version. Excellent extras include highlights not included on the album such as “Sugar on My Tongue”, “I Want to Live”, “Love Goes to Building on Fire”, alternate takes including a version of “Psycho Killer” , accompanied by New York downtown music scene legend Arthur Russell, and a red-hot show in October 1977 at the legendary Bowery club CBGB. There is also a beautifully designed 80-page book with never-before-seen photos, flyers, artwork and essays from each member of the band. – Jon Dolan
5
Miles Davis, “Miles in France 1963 & 1964 – Miles Davis Quintet: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8”
This beautiful eight-LP set features the first-ever performances of Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet, featuring pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, drummer Tony Williams and George Coleman over three nights in Antibes, France tenor saxophone was heard before being replaced by Wayne Shorter for a two-set Paris concert a year later. The new group tackles Davis’ work with contrasting arrangements and brightly lit tangents that give you goosebumps. They give their best, although not always successfully, in the performances in Antibes, where Coleman is a bit overwhelmed. But with Shorter on board, the group takes off; in the Paris performances they are nimble, airy and unfailingly beautiful. The upbeat “So What” from both versions of the band says it all: They are in a hurry to change the course of the music again. – MM
4
Beastie Boys, “Ill Communication (30th Anniversary)”
In 1994, the Beastie Boys were pretty much the coolest band in the world, co-headlining Lollapalooza and running their own Grand Royal label and zine. “Ill Communication” is her latest album of true genius, a casual but layered B-boy odyssey that takes her from the flute-tinged fiesta “Sure Shot” to the Q-Tip song “Get It Together” to funk-punk -Explosion led to “sabotage”. Along the way, as proud Buddhists and anti-sexists, they represented the boys in the Lolla Pit, forcing them to move their heads and have fun at the same time. This deluxe 30th anniversary edition spreads the original LP across four sides of wax and adds a bonus LP of remixes, live tracks, B-sides and other rarities. In “Sure Shot,” Mike D prophetically boasted that he “still listens to records and doesn’t use CDs.” Now you can enjoy a great record in the format God and Mike D intended. – JD
3
Neil Young, “Archives Vol. III (1976-1987)”
The third volume of Neil Young’s ongoing Archives boxset series covers the years 1976 to 1987. This eleven-year period saw some success, but also some puzzling genre-based releases that confused fans and angered his label. The collection contains 15 titles that have never been published. Fans can finally hear the Comes a Time-era “Lady Wingshot,” his tribute to Annie Oakley, and enjoy some oddities like 1982’s “Island in the Sun,” a quiet, tropical ditty unrelated to the Weezer of the same name song is to be confused. As always, there are some excellent Crazy Horse songs here, like a club show from 1984 on the 14th disc where they play unfinished versions of Landing on Water tracks like “Violent Side” and “I Got a Problem.” before they were completed. The highlight of this set is the crude, raucous “Touch the Night” – arguably his best song of the decade – which stretches over 11 minutes. –Angie Martoccio
2
Def Leppard, “Pyromania (40th Anniversary)”
The super deluxe box set for Def Leppard’s first hard rock masterpiece not only pays homage to the band with this four-CD (and one Blu-ray) set, but also a tribute to the great producer Robert “Mutt” Lange , whose other successes include the AC/DC album Back in Black and the Def Leppard album Hysteria, which was the band’s highlight. That’s because the collection features raw, insightful demos of each song, showing the story behind their creation. On the raw instrumentals of “Too Late for Love” and “Billy’s Got a Gun” you can hear the basics of what would become some of the record’s best songs. As the songs progress through each pass, you can hear Lange tightening and tuning everything, turning up the snare drum, smoothing out the background vocals, and bringing in Thomas Dolby as keyboardist. The included live recording from 1983 is a victory lap, with songs like “Photograph” sounding fully developed after several slices of X-rays. – KG
1
The Grateful Dead, “Friend of the Devils: April 1978”
The Friend of The Devil: April 1978 box set contains eight previously unreleased concerts by the band on their spring 1978 tour, all recorded by the legendary Betty Cantor-Jackson. These shows marked the first time “Space” was performed after “Rhythm Devils (aka Drums)”, a combination that would become the live standard “Drums>Space”. The show at Duke University on April 12 includes an incredible 22-minute version of “Rhythm Devils,” featuring Jerry Garcia on steel drum. Another standout moment is the April 16 show in Huntington, West Virginia, during the transition from “Scarlet Begonias” to “Fire on the Mountain.” This special collection is limited to 10,000 individually numbered copies. It includes 19 discs, a 48-page book with liner notes and photos, original artwork by Matthew Brannan, and a removable wave drum for anyone who wants to get involved. – Alison Weinflash