Blur, boxed

Blur have gone and put this together.

For any sane fan, it's a wet dream of Blur goodness. OK, so we're re-buying 14 discs of material we already have to get three discs of new stuff plus a few DVDs we'll watch once, possibly rip the audio from and then shelve, but still. This turned out better than we had dared hope for...however, would it *really* have killed them to give us the complete Singles night? We get it, you hate "Bang", get over it.

(What, no tuning forks? What a rip off!)

you can't mistake our anthology

So for the past five days or so, I've been listening to one of two things: the amazing, amazing, amazing La Roux album or [more often than not] that piece on the left - the 22-disc, damn near complete Girls Aloud singles box set.

I've always had a love/hate [see what I did there?] thing with the Aloud. On one hand, they've released some of the best pop singles of the decade - "Sound of the Underground", "Love Machine", "Biology", "No Good Advice", all brilliant. On the other hand, they've released some of the worst, most unnecessarily pointless cover versions of the decade: "Jump"? "I'll Stand By You"? "I Think We're Alone Now"? I really don't think anyone was crying out for updates of those. [I used to think "I'll Stand By You" was their worst recorded moment, but then I came across their cover of Wheatus' "Teenage Dirtbag" - hardly what you'd call listenable in the first place - on the b-side to the quite lovely "Whole Lotta History" and I very quickly changed my mind.]

Anyways, the box itself cost close to $100 and was a solid 8+ week wait between order and delivery. So was it worth it?

Er, yes and no. Yes, I'm a completion freak and having pretty much everything all in one place is amazing. This box also marks the CD debut of a solid chunk of tracks that were previously digital, promo or vinyl [usually picture disc] only, so that's nice as well. And who doesn't love a good megamix or four? On the flip side [see, I did it again], many of the whopping 151 tracks that make up the box don't exactly beg for a second listen. Especially on the singles for the second, third and fourth albums when pretty much all of the remixing duties were handled by some faction of the Xenomania team - who produced the singles in the first place - things tend to get a bit tedious. There is a bonus disc of previously unreleased tracks - plus - however it is only 8 tracks - minus - and a good chunk of those 8 are just alternate lyric versions. Bonus disc fail.

That said, there are some gems buried in here - many pretty readily available on a sub-$5 CD single eBay or the Amazon marketplace, but that's besides the point - and it is kind of a badge of honor to be able to say "I made it through the Girls Aloud box set and lived to tell the tale."

If anything, it's nice to finally have one of their top 3 moments - rare for such a group, a picture disc vinyl-only b-side, the early-90's dance-act-with-female-guest-vocalist-esque "Memory Of You" - in CD quality. [Even if the bass is a little less exciting in HQ.]

As an art object, A+. As something you'll want to pull out and listen to over and over....notsomuch. Oh well.

10 choice cuts:
"Androgynous Girls" [b-side to "Love Machine"]
"Memory Of You" [b-side to "The Loving Kind"]
"Nobody But You" [b-side to "Biology"]
"It's Your Dynamite" [b-side to "Untouchable"]
"Girls Allowed [Almighty Mix]" [b-side to "Jump" - total club cheese but it's tolerable that early on, plus it's one of their finest non-single tracks to begin with]
"Some Kind of Miracle [Illicit Mix]" [previously unreleased, on 'The Rarities Disc']
"Life Got Cold [29 Palms Mix]"
"Biology [Benitez Beats]"
"Girls Aloud Megamix" [b-side to "Something Kinda Ooooh"]
"Whole Lotta History [Acoustic Version]" [quite lovely version of an underrated single]
bonus: "I'll Stand By You [Gravitas Vocal Dub Mix]" and "See The Day [Soundhouse Masterblaster Mix]" [completely ridiclous clubbed to death overhauls of two snorefests]

Things to avoid:
Any cover version that isn't "Girls On Film"
Any Tony Lamezma remix after your first two - "The Show" and "Love Machine" pop up first and they're probably your best bet.
"Girls on 45 Volume 2" - it just doesn't work for some reason, though the other megamix and album medleys are good fun
The edit/dub versions of the remixes - especially during the 'Out of Control'-era when they're all stacked in a row. Nice to have, yes. Nice to listen to back-to-back-to-back, no.
The interviews on the "Sound of the Underground" and "The Show" discs - all they do is reinforce my idea that the girls only wanted to be famous and became pop stars because they happened upon the opportunity, not because they care anything about music.

box sets done right: Girls Aloud

Say what you will about Girls Aloud, but it appears that they know how to take care of their [admittedly insanely obsessed] fans.

Just announced through their website, a limited edition of 5000 copies box set of all of their singles. Each single comes backed with every b-side from every format - physical, digital, CD, vinyl, doesn't matter, it's there. On top of that, stray compilation remixes get partnered with their appropriate single and random tracks that were on the best of bonus disc are with their parent single. We're talking everything here - if there was an edit version, full length, and dub version of a given remix, it's in here. Amazing. It'll run ya about $100 US, but some of us are crazy enough to fork it over. Ahem. [It's an instant collectors item so I will have no problem unloading it should I suffer from buyers remorse and/or decide I don't need a zillion remixes of "The Promise".]

The only downside is it does contain their abysmal cover of "Walk This Way" with the Sugababes from a few years ago, so I do finally have to buy that. Boo! [Though completist points for including it. Well played, girls.]

All packaged in a nice metal box too. Much easier than trying to track down a gazillion out of print CD singles and poor bitrate mp3s. Huzzah!

update: So it turns out there are a few things missing - the Jeremy Wheatley "Can't Speak French" for one. However, overall they did a better job than most compiling it and in this day and age that's good enough. Not letting us know when we ordered it that it's not shipping until the end of June - that's 2 months away! - when they've already charged us for it was a bit nasty, but there you have it.

like you didn't see this coming

Surprise, surprise - Ms. Repackage and Resell herself has a new box set coming out. From Björk.com:

Voltaic

We are announcing Voltaic, the celebration of Volta and the Volta live show. The release will consist of various live recordings from Paris and Reykjavik. The live set was also recorded in a studio in London, which will undoubtedly give us some rare glimpse into the development of the live set.

The release will be availble as Standard, Deluxe and Deluxe Vinyl.

Björk did document the tour extensively and now we will be able to enjoy this work in a new light and new sound.

DISC ONE (AUDIO) Songs From The Volta Tour Performed Live At Olympic Studios
DISC TWO (DVD) The Volta Tour Live In Paris, Live in Reykjavik
DISC THREE (DVD) The Volta Videos and the video competition
DISC FOUR (CD) The Volta Mixes.

We will have more on this release very soon as we are building our special.
A pre order link is on its way! And here is Pre Order

Release date is yet to be confirmed. we predict March! :).

--

Action Records lists the release date as March 3 on their pre-order list, but who knows - it could be anything with her.

I'm actually quite excited for this - I never bought any of those fucking singles box sets as they were way too pricey and super excessive, even for her. Now, here they all are in one nice little package - with stuff not available in the original pressings - for the price of one of them. Come on...you knew it was going to happen!

The live DVD is exciting too - I skipped out on this tour so it'll be nice to have a document of it. As disappointing as "Volta" was, it had her strongest string of singles in ages - outside of the weak 'Declare Independence', of course - and had some great mixes backing them up. It's on the "to buy" list.