Singles Box Sets, Classic/Dud, and Search/Destroy...

.. Surprised there's not a thread about this.

The (semi) ultimate vanity item for the artist? The excellent made unworkable?

(i.e. having to change the disc all the time to play them all?)

7" boxes, CD boxes, have at ye...

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NgKE4TWiL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

This was pretty stupid. The art made to look like the orig. 7" covers was good I suppose, but 2 tracks to a CD...

Then again it's half as much work as listening to the actual 7"s

lovely to look at but a complete pain in the ass as an actual listening format

the blur singles box was an example of where it was done pretty well, though i'm only talking about the way the music was organised rather than the tunes themselves

I got the Buzzcocks one, 14CDs in a tightly packed box, "Inventory"

Which was pretty, and the sort of thing you think would be nice to have, but as you say most only have two tracks on.

The Clash one was better: All the tracks associated with each single, so things like "The Magnificent Seven" has all the dub and 12" versions.

The Blur one is a thing of beauty, and I still haul it out every so often. The multiformats for "Sunday Sunday" makes for a damn near full-length album. The 'worst' being for "End of a Century" which has only three tracks.

Still, I was more thinking originally about 7" box sets.

..

One of the earliest I ever heard of: The Cocteau Twins singles box. Finally collected on 2CDs a couple of years ago, but there's still a unique single in the original box!

I bought the Clash one, honestly only ever played through the whole thing once. It was easier back when I used to have my 100-disc changer hooked up and could load them all up and play straight through.

Yeah, pretty much me too (the Clash box)

Anyway, what of 7" singles?

Notably:

"I wanna punk rock" (the Step Forward 10 singles)
The Velvet Underground US singles
Pere Ubu Hearpen singles
A quite nice Trojan one I haven't played yet.

I guess it's not a USA phenom, for the most part?

will rep for ministry singles box set

I really like the Smashing Pumpkins "Aeroplane Flies High" box. They also had an earlier 7'' singles one, which I've never seen.

The Nirvana one was rather unexciting though.

there was a singles box for the first 6ths album, that had a bonus track

Simple Minds - the Themes box sets. I have the first two, and I believe there's lots of stuff on them that appears nowhere else.

The first Duran Duran singles box is pretty essential and nicely priced. I see it used all the time for under 30 bucks.

I think I saw a forthcoming listing for that Duran Duran singles box compressed down to 3 CDs.

I'd seen the Robbie Williams' 19CD box set singles around, thought it vaguely suspicious the lack of a track listing other than the a-sides on the box.

Today, in a local charity shop, it's there for £7, and yes, it's 19 CDs individually sleeved (nice pic on each), and one track only on each.

Vanity project?

more chinese road filler morelike.

The Blur one is a thing of beauty

The Cocteau Twins singles box.

The Velvet Underground US singles

I really like the Smashing Pumpkins "Aeroplane Flies High" box.

Will rep hard for all of these.

Don't own any and don't want any. A ridiculous waste of space - that's what Greatest Hits albums are for. And if the songs are otherwise completely unavailable in any other configuration, fuck 'em, that's what illegal downloading is for, greedy bastards.

(Theoretical exception: MX-80 Sound, I'll buy anything with their name on it. But they've never released such a box. Too bad, they could call it "Roadbox Of Sound" or maybe "Band In A Box")