With the holiday shopping season in full fidelity, finding the perfect gift for that special music obsessive in your life can be a stiff challenge. To help you hit the right notes, here is your guide to the year’s most essential box sets, anthologies and compilations — from Prince to Linkin Park, and everything in between.
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Joni Mitchell
Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975)
The third installment of the Joni Mitchell box set series moves into one of her most musically rich periods, covering the albums For the Roses, Court and Spark and The Hissing of Summer Lawns. The original recordings are available separately, but this five-CD, four-LP set showcases demos and alternate takes, plus two full concerts, across 128 tracks. There are plenty of treasures for fans to discover — like a session with Graham Nash and David Crosby, and versions of “You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio” and “Raised on Robbery” with Neil Young and the Stray Gators.
Linkin Park
Meteora: 20 Year Anniversary
Two decades after its release in 2003 — and six years following the death of frontman Chester Bennington — the blockbuster second album from rap-rock/nü-metal standard bearers Linkin Park gets a massive 89-track expansion with lots of live material. This new edition of Meteora also includes a 12-track “Lost Demos” disc featuring several unreleased tunes that will remind listeners what made the band stand out from the pack in the first place.
Devo
50 Years of De-Evolution: 1973-2023 / Art Devo: 1973-1977
Devo’s history as one of the leading synth-pop/rock acts of all time is chronicled in these two box sets. With an affinity for offbeat experimentation and subversive (often wacky) lyrics, 50 Years of De-Evolution collects the band’s hits and best studio cuts in one handsome package featuring four LPs on clear vinyl. For fans who can’t get enough of the band’s singular style, there’s Art Devo, collecting a wealth of unreleased early tracks that trace their development and highlight the quirkier side of this long-running musical institution.
The Spinners
The Complete Atlantic Singles: The Thom Bell Productions, 1972-79
This 43-song set collects the hits and another two-dozen notable tracks from the peak years of the Spinners’ career, when the group worked with songwriter-producer Thom Bell and helped define the ’70s soul sound. Another set, Ain’t No Price on Happiness: The Thom Bell Studio Recordings, 1972-79, packages expanded versions of the eight Spinners albums released during this period.
Dionne Warwick
The Complete Scepter Singles: 1962-1973 / Sure Thing: The Warner Bros. Recordings, 1972-1977
The Scepter label box set chronicles Warwick’s rise to stardom as one of pop’s finest vocalists and song stylists, while the Warner Bros. collection is devoted to a less commercially successful — and under-appreciated — phase of her career. With tracks like “Don’t Make Me Over,” “Walk On By” and “You’ll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart),” both sets are essential listening for devoted fans and curious newcomers alike.
Aretha Franklin
A Portrait of the Queen: 1970-1974
Aretha Franklin’s 1960s output established her as the “Queen of Soul.” But the five early 1970s albums included in A Portrait of the Queen: 1970-1974 — including Spirit in the Dark and Young, Gifted and Black — showcase the degree to which the artist continued to deepen her craft in the decade to come. A sixth disc of rare tracks from the period rounds out this soulful set.
Bob Dylan
Fragments: Time Out of Mind Sessions, 1996-1997
A string of lackluster albums in the 1980s and early 1990s left many critics wondering if the legendary Bob Dylan was running on creative fumes. But after getting his groove back on 1997’s Time Out of Mind, he began a fruitful run of inspired albums that has continued to this day. This 17th volume of Dylan’s Bootleg Series includes outtakes, alternate cuts and a disc of live performances from this creative turning point.
The Replacements
Tim (Let It Bleed Edition)
Bringing a new crispness and clarity to the 1985 classic Tim, this four-disc box set version of The Replacements’ fifth studio album begins with a new mix of the original recordings by Ed Stasium. The collection expands on the bonus cuts that debuted on the 2008 single-disc deluxe version of the record, including the rocking outtake “Having Fun,” a frenetic version of “Kiss Me on the Bus” and four variations of the anthemic “Can’t Hardly Wait.” The set is rounded out by a rambunctious and fairly tight (by mid-80s ‘Mats standards, anyway) 1986 live show in Chicago.
Superchunk
Misfits and Mistakes: Singles, B-sides and Strays, 2007-2023
Nineties-born indie rock institution Superchunk offers up 50 tracks of unreleased goodness in this four-LP/two-CD collection sourced from out-of-print releases, digital singles, compilations and more. There may be a few misfit songs in this collection, but no mistakes: just more irresistible music from one of the leading alt-rock bands of the past three decades.
Pet Shop Boys
SMASH: The Singles, 1985-2020
From “West End Girls” to “Suburbia,” nearly all of the British synth-pop group’s singles are compiled on this 55-track set, showing a remarkable consistency in quality and style that has kept the dynamic duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe relevant and successful for 35 years and counting.
Prince & the New Power Generation
Diamonds and Pearls
Prince’s mostly stellar 1980s work was followed by an uneven decade for the iconic artist, but 1992’s Diamonds and Pearls had its share of standouts spanning rock, pop, funk, hip-hop and gospel. The fifth installment of this seven-disc super deluxe set is the highlight, featuring 10 outtakes that could have made up one of Prince’s better albums.
Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos
Stax Records, the company that defined classic soul music in the 1960s, featured a large stable of songwriters and demo singers — some of whom were also signed as recording artists. This massive 146-track set includes demos recorded by William Bell, Mack Rice, Eddie Floyd, Carla Thomas, Bettye Crutcher and Homer Banks, to name a few. And here’s the kicker: More than 60 of these songs were never released by artists on Stax or other labels, adding to the revelatory experience.
We’re An American Band: A Journey Through the USA Hard Rock Scene, 1967-1973
This high-wattage compilation walks the fine line between hard rock and the emerging genre of heavy metal. Some well known acts are present and accounted for — Steppenwolf, ZZ Top, The MC5, Alice Cooper and Blue Cheer — but many offerings on this new 63-song collection are from more obscure acts. A number of these tracks are pulled from the Brown Acid compilation series — now on its 17th edition, those sets may interest listeners looking to dig deeper.
What a Groovy Day: The British Sunshine Pop Sound, 1967-1972
The years between 1967 to 1972 might just be the most fertile, diverse and adventurous period in rock history. This three-CD clamshell box set includes 53 songs focusing on the breezy pop wing of the British scene, culling songs mainly from acts that faded into obscurity long ago . Yes, some of these offerings sound dated, and there’s the occasional overly derivative tune. But this set has its share of gems and nicely documents a transformative time in British pop history.
This high-wattage compilation walks the fine line between hard rock and the emerging genre of heavy metal. Some well known acts are present and accounted for — Steppenwolf, ZZ Top, The MC5, Alice Cooper and Blue Cheer — but many offerings on this new 63-song collection are from more obscure acts. A number of these tracks are pulled from the Brown Acid compilation series — now on its 17th edition, those sets may interest listeners looking to dig deeper.
Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick, 1958-1971
American musicologist and folklorist Mack McCormick toured the country for decades, recording dozens of blues artists — some familiar, including Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb and CeDell Davis, and others largely unknown. This essential collection features live, mostly solo performances, plus a few tunes with backing, and all as authentic as it gets.
