Box Set Etiquette - how to listen?

Something like the VU box set (Peel Slowly And See) is more approachable on a disc-by-disc basis, in that each album is given its own disc, but then there's the issue of including bonus tracks on the disc w/ the album, so if you (like me) wanted to listen to the 3rd album w/out trudging through the lo-fi live cuts, skip skip skip skip. It's a minor thing, but still, ARRRRRRGH.

And then there's something like the Led Zeppelin box from way way way way back (14+ years?), wherein Jimmy Page & other box organizers did the iPod shuffle for you. They rejiggered & cherrypicked from the group's entire catalog so that latter-period stuff slapped up against "Dazed & Confused", and outtakes reclined comfortably between classic-rock staples, as LZ's entire ouevre was just part of one big timeless continuum and not the labour of over a decade's worth of work - the overall effect was pretty interesting, and a bit disorienting. (Once I actually heard the albums, my mind, it was like "huh?")

I think an odds-&-sods thing like the Magazine box can withstand a shuffle, given its disparate source material - almost any box set can, really. (I doubt the Zeppelin box can, though, as the transitions between tracks, IIRC, are seamless.) And I imagine doing the shuffle is U&K on the 78-minutes-per-disc behemoths, if only to bring the latter tracks one invariably zones out on to the forefront, and to place the monster hits in a newer, fresher context.

[xpost! phil took my line!]

So maybe the answer is: chuck everything into iTunes, then use Playlists to shape some order from the chaos.

one possible soultion to that is to, ya know, buy the albums.

Cursed hangups!

Also: There's something daunting about 80-minute CDs. I like my 34-minute Sonny Rollins CDs, thankyouverymuch.

Oy! It was a PRESENT! From my BOYFRIEND! I'm just trying to be practical!

This is still my favorite way for box sets/"greatest hits" compilations to be packaged. That, or put the songs in alphabetical order.

the fact that we all post to this board suggests that perhaps we do.

INTERNET POTSHOTS AHOYHOY

No way dude, the Ubu box doesn't do that! that is, split the albums up across multiple discs, if that's what you're saying. First disc is like singles/Modern Dance, second disc is Dub Housing/New Picnic Time, etc. In fact, I think they actually left a song off Song of the New Bailing Man in order to preserve things this way, but I'm not positive about that (I mean, they did leave a song off from that record, but I am not entirely sure what the reasoning was.)

Anyway, I just usually try to listen to a disc a day, if it's a pretty big set. That kind of gives you a chance to digest what you hear. The great thing about all the 'complete recordings' type things of jazzers and the like is that you do begin to notice stylistic shifts in their playing, especially when some of these boxes span large time frames. Like that Coltrane Complete Prestige Recordings thing, it's like 16 discs spanning 5 years; when i got that I just listened to one disc at night every day or every other day, tried to digest that, read some of the liner notes conforming to the sessions I was hearing ... so yeah, it might take you a month or so to go through something like that but by the end you really feel familiar with an artist's work and the way their sound evolved. but YMMV. I don't think I could do the 'chuck it all into iPod shuffle' approach with something like that, but that's just anal ol' me, I guess.