The Best Music Boxed Sets of 2022 - Rocking In the Norselands

Here we are again! Another year, another batch of released music box sets. 2022 did not disappoint, even if we saw more of a normalized amount of releases than in the last few eventful years.

During the lockdown, artists suddenly had a lot of time on their hands as touring wasn’t possible. Many of them spent that time looking through their drawers, finding out what they had in their vaults, and came up with archive releases. This was reflected in the numbers of box sets appearing in 2020 and 2021.

Some spill-over effect could be felt in 2022 as well, even after touring had resumed. Some projects take time to materialize, so a fair number of box sets planned during the lockdown finally saw release.

More than ever, boxes seem to come in all shapes and forms. Some are lavish affairs with large, embossed boxes and seemingly endless content, others are simple slipcase boxes with CDs in cardboard sleeves, and then there’s anything in between.

I enjoy all types. There’s something to be said about compact, affordable slipcase releases, collecting a lot of music in relatively little space, frequently with a nice booklet as part of the set. For real immersion, however, the best of the large box sets are unbeatable – especially when the music is accompanied by a quality book (preferably big enough to have readable text – we’re not getting any younger!) with information about the songs and the creation of the album. That, and interesting memorabilia, always adds a ton to the overall presentation and enjoyment.

Ultimately, though, it’s all about the musical content. Extra photos or even the best book in the world will not make up for material that should have been in the box but isn’t there. As fans we usually have good knowledge of what exists. We will know if that b-side was excluded, if those well-known demos were omitted, or if live sets have been the victim of heavy-handed editing. It should definitely contain the extras that have been included on prior re-releases. Feeling that something is missing or unfortunately tampered with can really diminish the perceived value of the set. The best ones includes all of the obvious, warts and all, and adds surprises on top of that.

Enough rambling – I am probably preaching to the choir in any case. With all of the above in mind, these are the sets I enjoyed the most that were released in 2022:

1) Queen – The Miracle (Collector’s Edition)

My third favourite Queen album of the 1980s (only slightly beaten by The Game and gigantic sentimental favourite Flash Gordon) somewhat unexpectedly got a box set release in 2022 – and the way it is put together is nothing short of exemplary. We can only assume that this will be followed by several other releases in the years to come, and if this set is anything to go by, we’re in for a very interesting and joyous ride.

The 1980s saw the band deliver many half decent albums – with that I mean half great, half unremarkable. This holds true for Hot Space, The Works, and A Kind of Magic. I’ll also admit that Flash Gordon probably only works as an album if you love the movie that it provides the soundtrack for. To be honest, even The Game is a bit up and down, albeit less so than the others mentioned. And that leaves The Miracle.

Innuendo is not an 80s album, having been released in 1991, but it would without question have been my favourite from that decade if it had been.

As it is, I will make the case that The Miracle is Queen’s most consistent and overall best 80s album. Most other albums from the decade have a peak that might surpass just about everything on The Miracle, but after the best tracks on each of those albums, there is a sharper drop-off. The Miracle does not have the same drop in quality, I think. The quality is more consistent, and it is a much more pleasing album to play from start to finish. It is probably few people’s favourite Queen album, but probably one that people can’t find real fault with either. This box set may be able to provide more than enough reason for a bit of a reappraisal.

I always enjoyed the 1-2 start punch of The Party and Khashoggi’s Ship, which in my mind belong together as part 1 and 2 of a larger story. The first part represents the pre-party jitters and looking forward to the evening, then the bombast and fireworks is felt as it gets underway and just refuses to be shut down (“no one stops my party”). The Miracle is simply stunning – an immense and criminally underrated track, where I sadly feel that the majestic and compositional qualities contained in this multi-segmental suite have gone unnoticed and are rarely mentioned. I Want It All is the hit that you might bemoan, like all overplayed songs, yet somehow you don’t really mind hearing it one more time.

The middle part of the album sees the band experiment a bit more with their sound. The Invisible Man and the wonderfully uplifting Breakthru utilizes electronic drums and bass, as does parts of Scandal. This may not have been to everybody’s taste, so it’s very interesting that the box set includes never before heard full band versions of these songs (yes – with real bass and drums, played by John and Roger). These versions shine a totally new light on these songs that are designed to wow people.

My Baby Does Me might be the closest we get to a filler on the album, although the early version included on the set called My Baby Loves Me is significantly more enjoyable, adding a more organic approach to the song similar to the others I just mentioned. Allowing people to see songs through different lenses is one of the most attractive and satisfying elements of boxed sets like this one, which ends up giving new appreciation even to original album versions you didn’t think much about before. And there are plenty of work-in-progress versions on this set.

The album closer Was It All Worth It? is in many ways the secret weapon of the album, tucked on at the end and was never a single or highlighted track. But it is a tremendous track in its own right, and probably the track on the album that most of all harkens back to their sound of ten years previously. It’s not much talked about, but in my mind it is one of the best tracks the band made in the 1980s. It is a glorious symphonic rock opus, with enough sentimental references to their early years and entire career to tug on the heartstrings of the fans.

As a champion of this album, I was more than happy to see its story get expanded by way of a box set. It contains no less than 5 CDs (a new remaster, demo/rehearsal/session versions, singles/remixes/b-sides, instrumental versions, and a collection of radio interviews from the media blitz surrounding the album’s release), a DVD and Blu-ray with similar content (all music videos, making-of documentary, album cover documentary, and interviews from the time), a remastered version of the original cut of the LP with an extra track (Too Much Love Will Kill You), promo photos, postcards, posters, and a lavish hardbound book filled with photos and essays about the album.

I love The Miracle, but is it my biggest personal favourite album in this overview? Perhaps not, and almost every other title on this list is regarded as a bigger classic. But in terms of a box set, Queen has done everything correct here. The best-sounding version of the album, outtakes, demos, rarities, a quality hardbound book with essays and anecdotes, and some mementos. The fact that even a vinyl record is included is the clincher. The set is also very affordable, which is especially appreciated during the current economic climate. There are other sets which contains less and are priced higher.

In short, this is how to do it. This is how I want all my favourite bands to release box sets for all the albums I love. Give us a set that is well-designed and affordable, that manages to offer some unknown surprises, and that is overall rich in content. Check, check, and check. Job well done!

2) KISS – Creatures of the Night (40th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition)

In 1982, KISS emerged a bit battered. Their previous studio album (Music From) The Elder had bombed in America, and marked the start of the downward turn of the popularity curve elsewhere in the world. While the concept album of The Elder is well liked by most fans today, at the time it was the wrong album to re-establish themselves with. The band had to regroup and focus, and they were determined to make up for lost ground. Their answer was to make their heaviest album to date with Creatures of the Night.

It was their second album with new drummer Eric Carr and first with guitarist Vinnie Vincent (despite Ace Frehley being on the cover). Other guitar players also make appearances on the album, as the position was in flux for much of the recording.

Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons penned some of their heaviest songs so far, including the title track, I Love It Loud, War Machine, and Danger. Gene collaborated with Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance for Rock and Roll Hell. Paul wrote a solid power ballad in I Still Love You.

There was a focus and sharpness to the album that the band perhaps had been missing for a while. Unfortunately, it was too late to repair the damage done from their flirtations with disco, power pop, and vague concept albums. In the year to come, the band had to drop their make-up to create headline news again and turn their fortunes around.

Time has however been extremely kind to Creatures of the Night, showing that there never was a problem with the album itself. If you fall out of fashion and are seen as passé, even the best album in the world will struggle to turn that around.

This 40th anniversary box set contains 5 CDs: the remastered album, two discs collecting all related tracks known and unknown from the era, including some incredible demos and alternate takes in great quality. The final two discs pull performances from four different shows to make up a representative set of 32 tracks (including solos and stage raps) from the Creatures of the Night tour. This tour is somewhat underbootlegged with not many audio recordings (and zero video from their US tour) in circulation, making it somewhat mythical in KISS circles as this was the last tour with make-up in round 1.

Knowing that KISS fans value collectables, the box comes with a ton of additional treasures, including a replica press kit from the era, a t-shirt iron-on, buttons, tickets, trading cards, guitar picks, posters, stage drawings, and an 80-page book with essays, album/song discussion with comments from nearly all involved, and liner notes penned by Ken Sharp.

This is without question the box set I have enjoyed the most this year. Crystal clear demos that have not been in circulation especially got people excited. I have followed KISS since my childhood years and they have always been with me. Since Metallica isn’t releasing a boxed set this year, this might have a fair shot at being the box with the most stash in it in 2022, and even some highly interesting extras. While the amount of music is beat by several other boxed sets, the ones provided are the ones people are interested in – highly interesting and greatly appreciated.

There is a bittersweet taste permeating said enjoyment, though, and that is enough to hold this release off the top spot: the pricing. Compared to what you get in return, this is easily by far the most outrageously expensive box set I have ever purchased, even beating with some margin the extensive sets by Gentle Giant and Horslips, both of which have nearly ten times more the material across nearly 40 CDs, including several books and masses of memorabilia.

At $300 in the US, and over $400 in several European markets (including Norway), you’d expect everything to be gold plated. Not even Metallica’s box sets have reached this price level, and their boxes easily contain many times the amount of audio content and even more merchandise, in addition to multiple live DVDs and vinyl records on top of that. Look back at my write-up of best boxed sets from 2021 for reference.

This is the box set that every KISS fan wants, but fewer can afford – and those who buy it, do so with closed eyes to avoid seeing the price tag. It’s just better not to know or think about. I was fortunate enough to pick this set up at a Black Friday sale, which brought it closer to US than EU levels, but it’s still too much. Given the economic climate, this is a box set for the privileged. Box sets have always had an air of premium product about them, which is fair, but this is many steps too far.

It will be interesting to see if the band will take on board this rather unison feedback ahead of further releases of this type, or add even more content to make the price tag worth it. For that price, several vinyl records should definitely be present in the box. It boggles the mind that they are not.

Again: if you’re a big enough fan, and can afford it, the box set WILL give you immense pleasure. It includes some real gems, and the extras are very sweet. The quality is definitely there. But make sure you really can afford it, or the bittersweet taste from the price level will drown out some of that enjoyment.

3) The Beatles – Revolver (Super Deluxe Edition)

The series of reissues of the Beatles catalogue started with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band in 2017 and continued chronologically forward to the end. The thought may have been to complete a string of 50^th Anniversary editions, but the pandemic messed that up somewhat towards the end. With the release of deluxe editions for Let It Be in 2021, the natural continuation was to go backwards from Sgt. Pepper. That meant that in 2022 we arrived at what many fans think is the Fab Four’s best album.

The main course is, just like on previous Beatles boxed sets, a brand new remix of the entire album by producer Giles Martin and technician Sam Okell. This was done in stereo as well as Dolby Atmos, and what makes this especially interesting is the use of the de-mixing technology developed by Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films. This allows for individual instrumental tracks to get a clear separation, making a perfect remix possible. The mono version of the album is also included in the set, but taken directly from the 1966 mono master tape without any new treatments.

The Dolby Atmos version of the album ended up being a major bone of contention between fans and the label. It was supposed to be included as part of the boxed set, just like it has been on previous releases. It was even announced as being part of it. Right before release, the news broke that this particular mix would only be available on a few select streaming services for now (Apple Music and Tidal). A major let-down, which led many to state that they would not be picking up the release.

I’d like to think that most of them did so anyway, because the rest of the set is quite lovely. My main pet peeve is, as usual, that they have still not agreed on a uniform size for the boxes in the Beatles reissue program. They keep jumping back and forth, with Revolver at least matching the format for Abbey Road, while being slightly smaller than Sgt. Pepper, which means the new size established on last year’s set for Let It Be (which slightly, but not quite, mirrored The White Album) is abandoned for now. Who knows, maybe they’ll get back to that for Rubber Soul, as two similar formats in a row seems to be impossible to manage for some reason.

Still, the contents is what matters, and the box includes 5 CDs: a new stereo mix, the mono master, two CDs with sessions (early takes, different/early mixes, non-overdub versions, etc), and an EP with new mixes of the single cuts belonging to this period. There is also a 100-page hardbound book which is absolutely sensational in its attention to detail – easily the best boxed set book of the year, with engaging essays about all aspects of the making of the album, including song-by-song deep-dives.

This is a nicely curated and not outrageously priced boxed set, where once again our own expectations and knowledge about what exists will ultimately influence how we feel about it, just like each and every one of these Beatles boxed sets. Hours and hours of recordings from these sessions exist, so we’re really only getting a taste of it all. It’s too easy to judge the Beatles boxed sets not in terms of what is on them, but in terms of what could have been. I think it is important to have those discussions, and it’s fair to mention this in reviews and articles about it, but at the end of the day, I believe they are doing the right thing with these boxes. The intension isn’t to present the full sessions. As someone who has heard a lot of them, I can safely say that the average listener would go bananas after hearing several dozens of versions of Taxman, or how about a solid hour of And Your Bird Can Sing? Maybe some 40 takes of Got To Get You Into My Life would be more to your liking? Simply speaking, curation is the correct approach for the main audiences. I really wish there was an option for those of us who are interested in everything as well, but that’s a different discussion.

Case in point: I once played through two hours of take after take of Strawberry Fields Forever on the living room stereo, until my family begged me to stop. While I was sitting there utterly fascinated, listening to the band figuring things out, the casual listeners felt the song grinding into their heads like Chinese water torture – and they like The Beatles, so it was all about what they saw as repetitiveness. My son still refers to the song as Strawberry Fields Never. But, I digress.

People like myself, and likely most of those reading this, would love hearing the band work their way through all these songs. We listen differently than those who just want to enjoy the songs. This set is meant to be for everyone, and largely succeed with that. The curation of the session work is well done and encourages playability for moderately interested as well as, well, the rest of us. This is a good achievement, and it does put the set on par with most other boxed sets offering similar outtakes.

A solid thumbs up on nearly all counts – although removing the Atmos mix at the eleventh hour was and is a shitty move. I actually feel pretty generous in not lowering my overall ranking for this set for that. On the other hand, a big plus for the amazing book which is best in class this year.

4) the Kinks – Muswell Hillbillies/Everybody’s In Showbiz (Deluxe Boxed Set)

The Kinks continue their well-received reissue campaign with a deluxe box set dedicated to two albums. Perhaps surprisingly, rather than continuing to release their albums on the Pye label (which contains their 1960s catalogue), we now start on the band’s RCA years with Muswell Hillbilly (1971) and Everybody’s In Showbiz (1972).

Putting two albums inside the same boxed set is an unusual approach, but they were released back-to-back and perhaps the thematic link is strong in their creator’s minds. Or perhaps by joining them up like this, there is enough content and extras to justify putting it out in a sizeable box set like this rather than settling for individual smaller expanded CD sets. Boxed sets are clearly more fun, and in sum it certainly is quite a package. Make no mistake: this is one of the biggest (and heaviest!) music box sets of the year.

The two albums were released during a period when the band toured America extensively to make up for lost time (they were banned from touring there between 1965-69). Having been very British both topically and musically up till then, their fascination with America and road experiences are now starting to seep into the music. Having had a worldwide hit in 1970 with Lola, there was every expectation that the band would continue exploring their quirky kind of mainstream appeal. Instead, Muswell Hillbilly is inward looking with songs about various types of struggles (Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues, Alcohol, Skin And Bone), distrust about society and the state (20^th Century Man, Here Come the People In Grey), dreams about getting away from it all (Holiday, Complicated Life), a growing fascination with America (Oklahoma USA, Holloway Jail, Uncle Son) – but ultimately (and they wouldn’t be The Kinks without it) – also songs about clinging on to the good old-fashioned British things in life (Have A Cuppa Tea, Muswell Hillbilly). It’s a fascinating album, but disjointed. I love several of the songs, but I am not sure that the sum of the album is bigger than its parts.

The follow-up is similar in that regard. A lot of the songs are heavily influenced by life on the road, which sums up the life of the band the year prior – as well as the fact that a lot of that roadtime was spent in America. Songs like Here Comes Yet Another Day, Unreal Reality, Motorway Food, and Sitting In My Hotel read as pure reports from the road, which are fascinating enough, but describes a life not very typical for most of their fans. Fortunately, the album also had a stone cold classic in Celluloid Heroes, which took its inspiration from the Hollywood Stars Walk of Fame. This in one of the true classics that the band ever produced and has already stood the test of time.

Supersonic Rocket Ship also deserves a mention – the wonderful song about how people of every creed is welcome to join the singer for a trip in his rocket ship. This song was unexpectedly (but thrillingly) used in the 2019 film Avengers: Endgame, serving as a very notable transition between the scene where the Hulk gives Ant-Man tacos and the scene where Rocket Raccoon and the Hulk travel to visit Thor in New Asgard. I expect that not too many recognized it as a Kinks song, or took the time to investigate, but here’s hoping.

The box itself is sizeable, which is necessary as it holds no less than six LPs, a 52-page hardbound book, four CDs, a photo folder, a map, and a metal pin.

Muswell Hillbilly is presented as a double LP set in light blue vinyl, the second containing outtakes, b-sides, alternate versions, BBC Peel sessions, backing tracks, and radio spots. A single CD collects the core album, without including bonus tracks.

Everybody’s In Showbiz is a yellow vinyl triple LP set here. Originally a double album, one each studio and live, adds a third one containing bonus tracks – a combination of more live tracks from the Carnegie Hall show plus studio outtakes and alternate mixes. A single CD collects the original double album, with no bonus tracks.

The final LP contains unique and brand new 2022 remixes by Ray Davies of tracks from the two albums. This is easily the main attraction here, and is included as a standalone CD as well.

So… where are all the extra tracks on CD? This will be the big bone of contention. The fourth and last CD is called “The Kinks’ 1971 US Tour Travel Montage”, consisting of the 20-minute track Travelling Montage as well as two 2022 mixes of Travelling With My Band and Celluloid Heroes. The montage is created by Ray Davies and is meant to play like an “audio movie,” conjuring up the feelings of life on the road. It starts with sounds of planes taking off, several air hostesses announcing arrival at various destinations, snippets of hotel conversations, fragments of live material, demos and outtakes. There are humorous interview pieces and fruitless attempts at ordering room service. It does work, and is an interesting approach – which is somewhat similar to the approach on the Lola box set of a few years ago, when demos were presented partially rather than in full, interspersed with Ray and Dave Davies sitting together, in conversation with each other about the album, the songs, all sorts of memories from the time. It is very interesting, and becomes more of a journey that places the songs in context, but if you’re one of those who want the songs in full, only getting glimpses can be very frustrating. And, don’t we all really want to have the songs in full?

Unlike on the Lola boxed set, this time we do get a lot of these tracks as standalone as well – albeit primarily on vinyl. Not having them represented on CD is annoying, no especially as these tracks are included on lesser versions (like the new 2CD versions of both albums). When you purchase the most expensive deluxe edition of the reissues you shouldn’t need to pick up other versions of the album to get the songs on the format you want. Maybe forcing people to buy different versions of the album makes sense from a business perspective, but there’s no need to piss off your biggest fans. Again, how big of an issue this is will vary depending on how format-specific you are. At least there are solutions.

The set also includes a Blu-ray, which features a previously unseen, digitally restored 1971 home movie of life on the road. Wildly interesting, although far too short at 11 minutes. The customary book is 52 pages, in lovely hardcover, with essays, media clippings and release overviews from the time. A Kinks metal badge, an envelope full of very lovely glossy photo prints of the band, and a “London Roots” map highlighting historical Kinks-related locations completes the collection.

In sum this is a very immersive collection which in my case led to a rediscovery of the era, as well as augmenting it with interesting and unheard material. When Ray Davies is involved, we should expect some different approaches, and it’s up to each of us to figure out whether they are more inclined to fascinate or frustrate.

5) Elton John – Madman Across the Water (50th Anniversary Edition)

Sir Elton John is bidding farewell to the touring life, but his back catalogue is certainly not going away anytime soon. If this spectacular 50th anniversary edition of 1971’s Madman Across the Water is any indication of what is on the horizon, we are in for years of ripe rediscovery when it comes to a discography that deserves in-depth reappraisal.

The album is Elton John’s fourth, and was released at a time when he was rising to prominence as a popular artist. Despite this, it was one of his lowest charting album efforts in the UK, but it did very well in the US, peaking at 8 on the US Billboard Top Pop Albums. The album has been reappraised over the years and is seen as an early classic in his career, helped by two popular singles: Levon and Tiny Dancer. The latter in particular has gone down in history as an all-time classic, being ranked #47 on the 2021 list of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

The title track Madman Across the Water is a particular favourite of mine with its many dramatic yet low-key musical breaks. The track was initially planned for inclusion on Elton John’s previous album Tumbleweed Connection, featuring guitarist Mick Ronson as the primary musician. It was set aside and re-recorded for this album, instead featuring new touring guitarist Davey Johnstone alongside Elton John’s piano. The earlier Ronson version is one of many extra tracks included on this set.

The box set is shaped like a slipcase with two items inside: a fold-out book which houses the three CDs and Blu-ray. The set is basic yet extensive, including rarities, previous and alternate versions, piano demos for every song, a previously unreleased full version of the song Rock Me When He’s Gone and a complete 1972 appearance on the BBC’s Sounds For Saturday program, which also appears in visual form on the accompanying Blu-ray, paired with a 1971 The Old Grey Whistle Test performance.

The format is attractive yet affordable. It focuses on the basics – the music, a video accompaniment, and a book, with no merchandise, photos or extras. There are quite a few albums to cover, and this won’t make the series too exclusive for most fans to join in for the ride. I look forward to similar treatments of Honkey Chateau and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – and hope the series stay around long enough to dip into the 1980s and Too Low For Zero!

6) Ultravox – Rage In Eden (Deluxe Edition)

Ultravox have released some of the better deluxe editions of the past years. The Vienna 5CD+DVD box from 2020 was just about perfect, including anything we could possibly want – the original version of the album, Steven Wilson stereo and 5.1 mixes, b-sides & remixes, unheard cassette rehearsals and a live concert performance – all for around the €50 mark. Even more casual U-vox fans like myself could get excited just by how well it was done, enjoying the thought and attention to detail that had gone into compiling this set.

When they set out to give the band’s fifth album Rage in Eden the deluxe treatment, the Vienna approach is very much replicated. We’re looking at another lovely 5CD+DVD box.

Originally released in October 1981, as with the bands previous two albums, Rage In Eden was produced by Conny Plank (Kraftwerk, Can, Neu!) at his studio in Cologne during the summer of that year. Having got some freedom and financial flexibility after the success of Vienna, the band decided to enter the studio with nothing prepared, challenging themselves to take advantage of the studio as an instrument as much as possible. The process lasted three months. Although Ultravox continued with the popular electronic new wave style they developed on their previous album, this time they strove to create a more complex and introspective sound.

The set features a new Steven Wilson stereo remix, a disc of singles/remixes/b-sides/rehearsals, and then two more CDs with a newly mixed and previously unreleased concert recorded at Hammersmith Odeon in October 1981. The audio-only DVD contains a new 5.1 Surround Sound Mix of the album and b-sides by Steven Wilson, along with 24/96 hi-tes audio of the new mixes and the original 1981 album/b-sides audio.

The format is a 12” x 12” rigid slipcase, holding two gatefold sleeves, gold 6x Card Wallets, a 12” x 12” 20 page booklet including newly written notes by Warren Cann and unseen photos, a second booklet with a reproduction of the original Rage In Eden tour program.

There is also a 4LP clear vinyl box set, which includes the full Hammersmith concert, while a 2LP half-speed mastered black vinyl version features the original album plus singles/b-sides. A third vinyl option – a picture disc edition with instrumentals – is also available, but only as an RSD special.

7) David Bowie – Divine Symmetry: The Journey to Hunky Dory

The boxed set focusing on David Bowie’s 1971 album Hunky Dory had been rumoured for a while and took a long time coming, but finally arrived at the end of 2022. It ended up being called nothing less than Divine Symmetry: The Journey to Hunky Dory.

Hunky Dory is Bowie’s fourth album, and is seen as an early classic in the Bowie catalogue. His career took a sharp upturn with this album, which was the first to contain the famous Spiders From Mars-band, which featured Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder, Mick Woodmansey, and Rick Wakeman (studio only). It contains several bona fide hits with Changes, Oh! You Pretty Things, Queen Bitch, and definitely not least Life On Mars?, which many holds as one of the best songs to come out of that era.

The release is a four CD/one Blu-ray deluxe set, housed in a coffee-table-book-size slipcase – similar in size, presentation, and content to 2019’s Conversation Piece. It covers the year leading up to the release of Hunky Dory in December 1971 through home demos, BBC radio sessions, and live and studio recordings.

In short, CD1 contains early demos, CD2 & CD3 explore David Bowie’s appearances on BBC Radio at this time with John Peel In Concert-type content, while CD4 delivers alternate mixes, singles and different versions. Observant readers will notice that the album itself isn’t part of this set. Perhaps it is rightly assumed that people will already have this, and that a remaster isn’t needed – there was a new remaster in 2015, after all.

The album is however included on the Blu-ray, where all tracks are available in hi-res stereo (with the exception of the 2016 mix of Life On Mars, provided in 5.1 and 2.0 stereo). It also offers An Alternative Journey Through Hunky Dory, with different versions of every track on the album. There’s also the 2015 remaster (from the Five Years box) and a Bob Harris Sounds of the 70s recording.

The slipcase also houses a 100-page hardback book featuring exclusive memorabilia and photos. There’s also a 60-page replica composite of Bowie’s notebooks from the era, featuring handwritten lyrics, costume drawings, recording notes and set lists which is fascinating reading.

8) Neil Young – Harvest (50^th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

The album that nearly didn’t come out as Young felt it was far too commercial got a 50^th Anniversary deluxe edition in 2022. It was Neil Young’s fourth solo album and is by far the most successful from his solo catalogue, with classic songs such as Heart of Gold, Old Man, and The Needle and The Damage Done. It also features Alabama (one of several songs featuring David Crosby and Graham Nash on backing vocals), where Young took issue with several racism-related issues that had plagued the state recently. Feeling that Young had painted with far too broad strokes, it spurred Lynyrd Skynyrd to pen their Southern Rock classic Sweet Home Alabama in response to the assertions.

So much more could be said about the album and its history, but let’s focus on the contents of the reissue for now. It comes in both vinyl (2LP+7’’+2DVD) and CD boxes (3CD+2DVD). The first disc in either version is the remastered album, with the second featuring Young’s much-bootlegged BBC In Concert performance from 23 February 1972 – incidentally less than two weeks after this writer was born. The single or third CD features three outtakes from the Harvest sessions.

The first of the two DVDs contain the video performance of BBC In Concert, while the second contains a Holy Grail: the previously unreleased two-hour documentary Harvest Time, which captures the making of the album from start to finish. The hardbound book that collects it all features never-before-seen photos alongside extensive liner notes by photographer Joel Bernstein.

Hardly the fullest boxed set from the year, but it collects what exists from the Harvest era very nicely. And with Young having pulled his catalogue from all streaming services, you’ll need it physically in some form to have it. You could do a lot worse than this set!

Which are your favourite box sets of 2022? Leave a comment below!