‘The Smiths — Complete’ box set: 8 albums on vinyl, CD; plus 25 7-inch singles,
‘The Smiths — Complete’ box set: 8 albums on vinyl, CD; plus 25 7-inch singles, DVD
The U.K. arm of
Rhino Records this fall will release
The Smiths — Complete, a “super deluxe collectors’ box set” that will feature remastered versions of the band’s eight albums on both CD and 180-gram audiophile vinyl, plus all 25 of the group’s singles on individual 7-inches — as well as prints, posters and a DVD of music videos.
Packaged in a “heavyweight trunk” and limited to 3,000 copies worldwide, the colossal box set is slated to ship Oct. 3, and is priced at £249.99 — or about U.S. $410 — through
Rhino.co.uk. It’s not yet clear whether Rhino’s U.S. operation also will release the
Smiths collection.
UPDATE: Rhino U.K. seems to have taken the set off its website this morning, but you can see a screenshot of the packaging and full product details below, courtesy of
Morrissey-solo.com.
The heart of the set are the band’s eight albums —
The Smiths, Meat is Murder, The Queen is Dead and
Strangeways Here We Come, plus compilations
Hatful of Hollow, The World Won’t Listen and
Louder Than Bombs, and the live album
Rank — that have been remastered by guitarist
Johnny Marr and engineer
Frank Arkwright from “the original tape sources.”
According to Rhino,
The Smiths — Complete includes the following:
- All eight albums on CD featuring mini-LP replica packaging with gatefold card wallets
- All eight albums on 180-gram audiophile vinyl (five single LPs and three doubles)
- Twenty-five 7-inches featuring all of the band’s singles with “specially reproduced rarities”
- A 36-inch by 24-inch poster of all album and single cover artwork
- “The Complete Picture” DVD featuring all of the band’s music videos
- An eight-page, 12-inch booklet featuring “expanded liner notes”
- Eight-inch by 12-inch art prints of each album cover’s artwork
- Code to download band’s entire catalog as high-quality, 320kbps MP3 files
Marr’s remasterings of the four original studio albums were released on vinyl in 2009, and the Smiths’ 7-inch singles have been collected in a box set already, as well — both of which ex-frontman
Morrissey has
urged fans not to buy, claiming he wouldn’t see any money from them.
This new set, however, marks the first time the new remasterings are being released on CD, albeit without any bonus material appended. Previously, the work by Marr and Arkwright only was available on Rhino’s 2CD compilation
The Sound of the Smiths, released in 2008.
Although the label isn’t yet taking orders, Rhino’s website also lists a limited-edition vinyl box set — just 1,000 copies worldwide — that features the eight albums on 180-gram vinyl, plus the liner-notes booklet and the poster featuring the cover artwork. Also listed: a CD box set featuring just the eight albums on CD in the mini-LP replica sleeves.
from:
http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2011/07/27/the-smiths-complete-box-set-rhino-records/
(also posted on the main page)