colin – Brilliant! I am sure there are many other fathers/mothers who’ve ended up with similar stocks of one artist’s work thanks to an one-time offhand comment.

There is something overwhelming about those super-duper deluxe editions, with their endless inferior outtakes/alternate takes and ticket stubs, photos, biographies etc. For the punter though, there IS value to be had with remastered repackages if you look hard enough.

The Sony Legacy series gather together 5 remastered albums by ‘heritage’ (yuck) artists in min-vinyl replica sleeves and sell them for around 15 euro a box – Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Sly Stone, Rory Gallagher etc. Or how about the complete album collection by The Byrds: 13 records for 36 euro!

Dear Santa…

There’s deluxe editions of Cast albums.

Cast.

john – I know, it sounds mad that anyone would even want to buy ‘em but there’s obviously a market. The material is certainly there – record labels, bands and management have got into the habit over the last 10 years or so of recording and documenting everything with a view to these kind of releases down the road.

That said, Scarecrows’ idea of a Liam O’Maonlai box set sounds both scary and horribly realistic.

The SMiLE box set looks killer, in fairness. Meanwhile, millions of bewildered, non-Beach Boys fans wonder, “How many versions of Heroes & Villains and Good Vibrations do you need?”

I’d also say that the Immersion box set of Dark Side of the Moon is excellent. Okay, there’s all the ephemera which some people may regard as excessive and unnecessary, but the discs themselves are superb. Remastered album, live performance, original Alan Parsons mix (without the interviews or Clare Torry), various surround mixes, outtakes and early live versions. Any reservations I had about forking out my €129.99 were dismissed once I opened the box.

didnt brian wilson release a solo version of smile a few yrs ago? I wonder in 10-15 yrs time will we be getting deluxe re issues of the likes of Mumford & Sons! Anyone else noticed the trend of labels repackaging new albums within a year of it coming out? I see Warpaint have a new version of the Fool out and also off top of my head I’ve seen Midlake and Fleet Foxes do this too.

@12 – I *hate* that phenomenon. How much of a mug does one feel like having bought a 12-track album (for example) and then find that six months later you get a 20-track version of the same album with e.g. live tracks that might have nothing to do with the original album?

I can see *some* merit in “deluxe editions” that might celebrate a signficiant anniversary of an album. Take the 2-CD Deluxe Edition of the Who’s LIVE AT LEEDS – awesome expansion of the original album. No, but wait, there’s a 4-CD version…

Sure a lot of these box sets are superfluous but when they’re assembled with a bit of care and effort they can be amazing .A case in point is the Sandy Denny box set from 2004, which was invaluable for people who couldn’t stand the overblown production on her final album as it had a whole disc of demos of those songs. However they did put out a 19 disc box set last year, which even a Denny obsessive like me will admit is overkill. The Pet Sounds box is superb so i imagine the Smile one will be too.

There’s a lot of it going on alright and judging from reviews of some of these repackage and expanded boxsets/reissues there’s not much worth talking about. One would assume that any “classic” album in its original, final form is the distillation of blood, sweat and tears that went into its creation. Who really wants to hear the stuff from the cutting room floor or have 10 versions of the same song in various shapes and rough-hewn forms? If that stuff is to be released then do it cheaply but i suppose that goes against the money-making grain. As you say Jim a lot of the original demographic from the album releases first time around would have the moolah to splurge on these reissues so the record companies will make hay while they can. I understand completely the value in remastered albums but the majority of special package releases seem to laden with tunes surplus to requirements. Back in the old days you’d get singles and b-side collections which is fair enough of course but i really couldn’t be bothered a lot of the time. Nirvana’s Nevermind is a perfect album – why muddle it with oodles of out-takes, demos etc and charge a king’s ransom for it?

I’d expect that kind of lavish coffee table pointlessness from Pink Floyd. But its unusual to see U2 getting in on the boxset game. Are they finally giving in and admitting their rock dinosaur credentials? Antique dealers that still sell the odd roll of cheap new bubble wrap at the til

How about the REM reissues – they have all been pretty good – roll on the Document reissue.

dooms lunch box has tasty treats- http://www.stonesthrow.com/news/2011/03/mf-doom-operation-doomsday-lunchbox