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With the holiday gift-giving season nigh, here are our favorite multidisc sets of the year, perfect for the music nerd with a deep attention span in your life. This year’s batch includes expanded reissues of Nineties alt-rock and Eighties metal classics, to deep-dive looks into fascinating eras in the careers of music greats, epic live sets and career-spanning collections. and more. A Warning: None of these will fit in a stocking.
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Bob Dylan and the Band, ‘The 1974 Live Recordings’
In January and February of 1974, Bob Dylan and the Band reunited for 39 shows in 21 cities, his first tour in eight years. Tour ’74 was Dylan’s first-ever arena tour — a rock commonplace by then that had not even been imaginable in 1966. The workload was so heavy — up to five hours total onstage time per day — and the newness of singing in an arena contributed to a hard-partying atmosphere. This was starting to show up, unavoidably, in the vocals; liner-notes writer Elizabeth Nelson draws the line between these shows and the audible deterioration of Dylan’s voice. Yet in the best moments of this 27-CD behemoth, Dylan’s mood is expansive. He’s actively investigating songs like “Gates of Eden” and “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding).” What grows ever more impressive is just how many facets of these songs, and more, that Dylan finds in reading after reading. —Michaelangelo Matos
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The Beatles, ‘1964 U.S. Albums in Mono’
Strange but true: The Beatles’ American record company decided not to release their albums. Instead, Capitol chopped up the albums so they could crank out more product, before this crazy little fad blew over. So America got a totally different Beatles catalog than the rest of the world — their original U.K. albums didn’t even get released here until 1987. The Fab Four had nothing to do with assembling their American debut, Meet the Beatles — but even if it violated their artistic intentions, it resulted in a timeless rock & roll classic. The Beatles: 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono collects their first seven American LPs on wax, up to evergreen collections like Something New and Beatles ’65. (And the less-evergreen but still-charming documentary The Beatles Story.) These mono vinyl versions finally fix the notorious “pseudo stereo” and echo that Capitol added, so the records finally sound as fab as they always deserved to. —Rob Sheffield
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Weezer, ‘Blue Album (30th Anniversary Edition)’
A thread of yarn dangles out of the front of the Weezer 30th-anniversary box set. If you pull it, the album will unravel and all will be laid bare: demos, early recordings, live recordings, BBC sessions, all packaged with the original album in this three-CD set. The band put effort into presenting a 360-degree look at its breakthrough 1994 debut, including the full Kitchen Tape demo in the original sequence the band had planned for Weezer. You can hear all the growing pains: the weird, wisely jettisoned rap-like sample on “Undone (The Sweater Song),” an acoustic “Buddy Holly,” a garage rehearsal in which they cover the Cars’ “Just What I Needed” (presaging the arrival of that band’s frontman, Ric Ocasek, who produced the “Blue Album”), a live version of “Jamie” and a “take five” recording of the same song that make for a good argument that this B side should have made the album. The result is a uniquely revealing reissue. Naked looks good here —Kory Grow
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Elvis Costello, ‘King of America & Other Realms’
When Elvis Costello went all proto-Americana in the Eighties, on the covers album Almost Blue and King of America, who knew it would be the start of an on-again, off-again romance with roots music over decades? This six-disc dive into that part of his legacy includes the America album and the expected rarities from that period (a very different early version of “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” which wound up on Blood and Chocolate), as well as an energized 1987 Royal Albert Hall show in London, where he unleashed his quasi-rockabilly cat. The rest of the package culls similarly rootsy tracks from the many such albums that followed, like The Delivery Man and his collaboration with New Orleans master Allen Toussaint. What’s even more surprising about Costello’s ongoing love for American music is the seamlessness of those later discs. Whether he’s venturing into bluegrass or singing with Rosanne Cash and Kris Kristofferson, he never sounds like an imposter. —David Browne
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Talking Heads, ‘Talking Heads: 77 (Super Deluxe Edition)’
Talking Heads dressed like students on a budget, sang about modern life with an almost eerie sense of detached optimism, and their sound was tense, spare, and nervy, yet weirdly welcoming, undeniably catchy, and a little funky. The super deluxe edition of their landmark 1977 debut breaks the reissue into a four-LP set with four seven-inch singles; there’s also a three-CD/Blu-ray version, a two-LP version, and a digital version. Among the excellent extras you get non-album highlights like “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 white-hot October 1977 show at the iconic Bowery club CBGB. There’s also a beautifully put-together 80-page book with never-before-seen photos, flyers, artwork, and essays from every member of the band. —Jon Dolan
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Miles Davis, ‘Miles in France 1963 & 1964 – Miles Davis Quintet: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8’
This gorgeous eight-LP set collects the first performances anywhere by Miles Davis’ “Second Great Quintet” — pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, drummer Tony Williams, and George Coleman, who was on tenor sax over three nights in Antibes, France, before being replaced by Wayne Shorter for a two-set Paris gig a year later. The new group takes on Davis’ catalog with high-contrast arrangements and starkly lit tangents that have spine-tingling heft. They’re pushing hard, not always successfully at the Antibes shows, where Coleman is a bit out of his depth. But with Shorter aboard, the unit achieves liftoff; on the Paris sets, they’re fleet, airy, and unfailingly beautiful. The snappy “So What” from both versions of the band tell it: They’re in a hurry to change the music’s course again. —M.M.
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Beastie Boys, ‘Ill Communication (30th Anniversary)’
In 1994, the Beastie Boys were pretty much the coolest band on the planet, co-headlining Lollapalooza and running their own Grand Royal label and zine. Ill Communication is their last album of true genius, a freewheeling yet richly layered b-boy odyssey that saw them go from the flute-looped fiesta “Sure Shot,” to the Q-Tip feature “Get It Together,” to the funk-punk explosion “Sabotage.” Along the way, they represented as proud Buddhists and anti-sexists, forcing the dudes in the Lolla pit to flex their heads and get down at the same time. This 30th-anniversary deluxe edition spreads the original LP over four sides of wax, and adds a bonus LP of remixes, live tracks, B sides, and other rarities. On “Sure Shot,” Mike D prophetically boasted he was “still listening to wax, not using the CD.” Now, you can enjoy a great record on the format God and Mike D intended. —J.D.
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John Lennon, ‘Mind Games: The ultimate Collection’
This super-deluxe box set, produced by Sean Ono Lennon and containing six CDs and two Blu-rays, makes the case that Mind Games has always been high art. The special edition takes the more widely available “Ultimate Collection” of the album remixes and supersizes it into a 13-inch cube that fits inside a replica of Yoko Ono’s Danger Box. The heart of the collection is Lennon’s album, presented several ways (“Ultimate Mixes,” which reimagine each song in a wider stereo spectrum, effectively undoing Lennon’s claustrophobic Phil Spector fixation, “Elemental Mixes,” which strip them down, “Raw Studio Sessions,” and other illuminating presentations of the songs. The sum of the parts here add up to an impressive whole and show enough sides to Mind Games to prove it was more than “just an album,” as Lennon once called it. —K.G.
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The Police, ‘Synchronicity 40: Super Deluxe’
The super-deluxe, six-disc Synchronicity 40th-anniversary-edition box set reveals all of the magicians’ tricks with hours of demos, alternate versions of the songs with different lyrics, outtakes, and live recordings. Some of the archival material sounds better than what made the album, some of it is cringe-inducing, and all of it shows the process of what goes into making a record worthy of association with Sgt. Pepper’s, as The New York Times did when the album first came out. The most revealing moments lie in comparing Sting’s demos to the full band’s renditions of songs, since you can hear how guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland made the songs sound like the Police. The box set shows how perfect synchronicity happens only in fleeting moments — even if there’s a lot of woodshedding necessary to make it happen at all. —K.G.
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The Grateful Dead, ‘Friend of the Devils: April 1978’
The Friend of The Devil: April 1978 box set includes eight previously unreleased concerts from the band’s spring 1978 tour, all recorded by the legendary Betty Cantor-Jackson. These shows marked the first ever appearance of “Space” following “Rhythm Devils [also known as Drums],” a combination that would evolve into the live staple “Drums>Space.” The April 12th Duke University show features an incredible 22-minute version of “Rhythm Devils,” withJerry Garcia joining in on a steel drum. Another standout moment is the April 16th 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 those inspired to drum along.–Alison Weinflash
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Bryan Ferry, ‘Retrospective: Selected Recordings 1973–2023’
Bryan Ferry began as the singer-peacock-visionary of Roxy Music, but he started making his own solo records almost as soon as the band began. Retrospective is a five-disc tour of his solo work — the trashy-yet-poignant oldies covers of “These Foolish Things,” the heartbreak meditations of “The Bride Stripped Bare,” the sleek Eighties gloss of “Boys and Girls.” It showcases his eccentric pop genius, from the desolate torch ballad “When She Walks in the Room” to the debonair seductorama “Slave to Love.” It also features his jazz versions of Roxy standards with the Bryan Ferry Orchestra. For a hardcore Bryanista, there might be cult faves missing (alas, poor “Party Doll”), but the unreleased stunners include his 1993 trip-hop “Mother of Pearl,” with Ronnie Spector. —R.S.
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Neil Young, ‘Archives Vol. III (1976-1987)’
The third volume of Neil Young’s ongoing Archives box-set series chronicles 1976 to 1987. This 11-year period featured some triumphs and some puzzling genre-based releases that baffled fans and enraged his label. The collection features 15 tracks that have never been released in any capacity. Fans can finally hear the Comes a Time-era “Lady Wingshot,” his tribute to Annie Oakley, and savor some oddities like 1982’s “Island in the Sun,” a tranquil, tropical ditty not to be confused with the Weezer song of the same name. As always, there’s some excellent Crazy Horse here, like a club show from 1984 on the 14th disc, where they break out in-progress versions of Landing on Water tracks like “Violent Side” and “I Got a Problem,” years before they were completed. The highlight of this set is the gnarly, raucous “Touch the Night” — arguably his best song of the decade — that stretches to 11 minutes. —Angie Martoccio
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Def Leppard, ‘Pyromania (40th Anniversary)’
The super-deluxe box set for Def Leppard’s first hard-rock masterpiece isn’t just a celebration of the band with this four-CD (and one Blu-ray) set but, by proxy, a celebration of prodigious producer Robert “Mutt” Lange, whose other credits include AC/DC’s Back in Black and Def Lep’s own high-water mark Hysteria. That’s because the collection includes raw, revealing demos of each of the songs showing their geneses. On rough instrumentals of “Too Late for Love” and “Billy’s Got a Gun,” you hear the skeletons of what would become some of the record’s best songs. As the songs go through each pass, you can hear how Lange tightened and tuned everything up, cranking up the snare drum, smoothing out the backup vocals, and hiring Thomas Dolby to play keys. The included live recording, from 1983, is a victory lap where after several discs of X-rays, songs like “Photograph” sound fully developed. —K.G.
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Various Artists, ‘Pour a Little Sugar on It: The Chewy Chewy Sounds of American Bubblegum 1966-1971’
Few genres in pop were considered as disreputable as the bubblegum invasion documented on this three-disc set. Candy-coated kindergarten romps like the Archies’ “Sugar, Sugar” and the Ohio Express’ “Yummy Yummy Yummy” sold tons of 45s, but were sneered at by everyone over the age of 15. But this three-disc set makes the case that those songs — along with equally well-crafted and zippy singles like Tommy James and the Shondells’ “I Think We’re Alone Now,” Crazy Elephant’s “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’,” and dozens of others — deserve belated respect for the glorious earworms they were. You can also sense the way that, intentionally or not, the masterminds of K-pop took a cue from the way bubblegum would recycle arrangements, riffs, or lyrics from other songs. Pour a Little Sugar on It recalls a time, before that bubble burst, when pop was unabashedly goofy and proud, less soul-searching but plenty soul-fulfilling. —D.B.
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U2, ‘How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (20th Anniversary Edition)’
U2 spent well over a year recording 2004’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, going through about five producers and an absurd number of songs throughout the grueling process. To celebrate the 20-year anniversary, the band combed through their vaults for the outtakes collection How to Reassemble an Atomic Bomb. Highlights include the funky “Happiness,” the anthemic “Country Mile,” and the delightfully playful “Theme From the Batman,” which the Edge wrote for a Batman animated show that ultimately went with another song. The original LP was strong enough to take Album of the Year at the Grammy’s over Kanye West’s Late Registration, but this is proof they had the goods to make it even better. It comes as part of a five-disc package that also features a remastered version of the original LP, remixes, and recordings from a 2005 concert in Chicago. There’s also an edition with two vinyl LPs. —Andy Greene
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Joni Mitchell, ‘Archives — Volume 4: The Asylum Years (1976-1980)’
Archives — Volume 4 spans just five years, but Joni Mitchell covered a lot of ground in this period — joining Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue, and taking a massive (at times confounding) creative leap as she expanded her sound deeper into jazz fusion on 1976’s legendary Hejira, 1977’s Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, and 1979’s Mingus, her collaboration with jazz great Charles Mingus. There are several gems and rarities here, like the gorgeous “embryonic” version of the Don Juan centerpiece “Paprika Plains,” and a 12-minute piano instrumental producer Henry Lewy secretly recorded and labeled “Save Magic.” Then there’s the live introductions to now-classics like “Coyote,” where she admits to the Rolling Thunder crowd that she’s not sure if it’s finished. “Maybe there’s a couple of more chapters to go,” she says. Then and now, wherever the journey takes her, we’re sure to follow. —A.M.
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David Bowie, ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star!’
David Bowie’s genius didn’t lie so much in how he reinvented his personae but in how he concealed their formations. The box set Rock ‘n’ Roll Star!, which contains five CDs and a Blu-ray, tugs back the curtain on the genesis of Ziggy Stardust with previously unreleased demo recordings, outtakes, and facsimiles of Bowie’s notebooks and handwritten lyrics. The collection chronicles Bowie’s vision of the Ziggy Stardust album, from a cracked concept record about what he called “the archetype messiah rock star” into an androgynous beacon for inclusivity. Its highlights are rare recordings like an intimate rendition of “Lady Stardust,” containing Bowie’s surprisingly reserved and intimate guide vocal, which feels like he’s singing just to you rather than in full Ziggy regalia, and a harder-hitting rendition of his castaway “Looking for a Friend.” Rarest yet are outtakes like the moving, introspective “Shadow Man” and the Buddy Holly-ish drug oddity “It’s Gonna Rain Again,” which should have come out years earlier. —K.G.
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Laura Nyro, ‘Hear My Song: The Collection, 1966-1995’
Laura Nyro died in 1997, but her influence is all over popular music. That continues on the new box set Hear My Song: The Collection, 1966-1995, allowing listeners to take a journey through her career. The massive collection contains 19 CDs, including her 10 studio albums, from her 1967 debut, More Than a New Discovery, to her posthumous 2001 record, Angel in the Dark. Nyro’s early albums, 1968’s Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and 1969’s New York Tendaberry, were influential in the development of the early-Seventies singer-songwriter movement, and at a time when other artists in that scene veered toward folk, she incorporated soul, gospel, and jazz influences (1971’s Gonna Take a Miracle was a collaboration with R&B trio Labelle). “She wrote songs that had no kind of fixed compass point,” Elton John writes in the accompanying book’s forward. “They remain as unique and absolutely spellbinding to this day as when I first heard them in the 60s.” —A.M.
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Brinsley Schwarz, ‘Thinking Back: The Anthology, 1970-1975’
Leaders of the U.K.’s early-Seventies pub-rock scene, Brinsley Schwarz never found the commercial success they deserved (their most well-known member, bassist Nick Lowe, went on to have a major career as a solo artist, and the band’s namesake guitarist was in Graham Parker’s backing band, the Rumour). Yet, they had their own take on the Band, the Byrds, and Van Morrison, sometimes suggesting Music From Big Pink or Moondance verging on mid-Seventies power pop. This seven-CD set collects the band’s five albums — Brinsley Schwarz, Despite It All, Silver Pistols, Nervous on the Road, Please Don’t Ever Change, and The New Favourites of … Brinsley Schwarz — plus live tracks and demos. These records are all worth hearing, but they’re not on streaming or easy to find on vinyl. Which makes U.K. label Cherry Red’s completist but affordable overview worth owning. —J.D.
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Elvis Presley, ‘Memphis’
While the King held court onstage in Las Vegas and recorded big hits in Nashville, his musical legacy wouldn’t be what it is without Memphis. This five-CD, two-LP box set named after his adopted hometown assembles all of his Memphis recordings, giving Elvis die-hards and even casual fans one of the most well-rounded tours of the Elvis Presley ZIP code. There’s the big bang of the Sun Studio recordings, the funk of the Stax sessions, and the final recordings at Graceland — in the near-mythical Jungle Room. Like many of the posthumous Presley sets released annually, Memphis succeeds in part because of engineer Matt Ross-Spang’s steady remixing hand. Here, aside from the early Sun sessions, he excises all of the studio overdubs to create an effect that mimics what Presley heard coming out of the speakers as he sang live. It’s both invigorating and haunting. —Joseph Hudak
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Faces, ‘At the BBC – Complete BBC Concert & Session Recordings 1970-1973’
Faces came on like the sloppiest, friendliest, loosest gang of London rock & roll louts you could ever encounter down at the pub: Rod Stewart, Ron Wood, and their rowdy mates. On At the BBC, they turn a national radio audience into their local boozer. The legendary DJ John Peel was their man at the BBC — they’re the only band he invited to his wedding. The box is eight CDs, running from 1970 to 1973, plus a Blu-ray of TV footage, mostly unreleased until now. But it doesn’t feel excessive — it’s the first document to do justice to Faces as a live band, in the ragged salt-of-the-earth soul of “Stay With Me,” “Cindy Incidentally,” and “Every Picture Tells a Story.” There’s also a bizarre 1970 Christmas performance — only Rod and Faces could make “Away in a Manger” sound like a party, with Marc Bolan in the choir. —R.S.
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Mötley Crüe, ‘Dr. Feelgood (35th Anniversary)’
By 1989, when glam-metal kingpins Mötley Crüe teamed up with producer Bob Rock for their fifth studio album, they had attained a level of sobriety and songwriting professionalism that helped them make a genuinely great record, from the hard-swinging title track and “Sticky Sweet” to grinding, rabidly catchy rockers like “Kickstart My Heart” and “Same Ol’ Saturation.” The guys in Metallica were so impressed they hired Rock for their next record to assure they’d get the same drum sound. This anniversary edition adds two discs of demos and highlights from the Dr. Feelgood tour (on CD or limited-edition vinyl). Befitting one of Eighties rock’s most over-the-top acts, the set also adds goodies like an 18-inch-by-24-inch poster, replica backstage pass, 16-page Dr. Feelgood tour itinerary, a press pack that includes the original press release and photo for the album, a medical envelope, and a guitar pick. —J.D.
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