Best music gifts

Nov. 23, 2008

Getting a one-album CD is always a welcome holiday gift, especially if you do one of three things. Either purchase music that you know the recipient already likes (thereby expanding the favorite portion of their CD collection), or gift them with music completely new to them - perhaps buy some jazz for someone who only claims to like alt-rock, or introduce techno to a dedicated classical listener, thereby introducing them to something that won’t just expand their CD collection, but their entire listening experience. The third way is the box set - more pricey, admittedly, but also very impressive, especially if you hone right in on a genre of music your gift recipient already loves.
Each year, the labels come up with albums and sets that take a step up from “regular” releases, and this holiday season is no exception; check out the following discs, and you’ll quickly see why these half-dozen are poised to become the best music gifts of 2008.


Smashing Pumpkins - If All Goes Wrong - CH Media
Technically a DVD, this is just as striking of an audio album from the reunited Pumpkins; just consider the visuals a bonus. Comprised of two discs, Disc One features an essential documentary showcasing the band’s reunion process, plus footage of their performance residencies, interviews with the band themselves (and The Who’s Pete Townsend), and a short featurette about the band’s often overly-excited fans called Voices of the Ghost Children.
Disc Two is really the highlight, as it features The Fillmore Residency, a collection of live performances from the band’s stay on the U.S. West Coast. Tracks on the Residency section also include a half-dozen different exclusive new tracks, a boon for any Pumpkins fan and an interesting way to add freshness to the works of this influential band.

Revolutions In Sound: Warner Bros. Records: The First Fifty Years - WB
Warner Bros. decided to mark their 50th anniversary with this 10-CD box set, making you (or your gift recipient) the real winner. Packaged with a 64-page booklet, these discs kick off in the good ol’ days of the label, with tunes by the likes of Tab Hunter, Connie Stevens, The Everly Brothers, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Don Ho... moves up through the ‘60s and ‘70s with Jimi Hendrix, Van Dyke Parks, Norman Greenbaum, Fleetwood Mac, T. Rex, and The Beach Boys... and continues into the ‘80s with The B-52’s, Devo, and The Talking Heads.

The Black Box of Jazz - Millenia
This set of timeless jazz greats is a little smaller than some of the other collections on this list, but no less impressive. It’s five hours and 50 songs of tracks from the real jazz world - these are songs that don’t diminish with time, but are recognized as jazz classics or standards that will add a great jazz element to anyone’s music collection.
Lionel Hampton kicks things off with “Take the A Train,” and he’s followed by a whole host of esteemed jazz colleagues, from Wynton Marsalis to Dave Brubeck (yes, “Take 5” is here), Dizzy Gillespie to Woody Herman, Thelonius Monk to Chick Corea.

Nada Surf Vinyl/MP3 Box Set 1994-2008 - Barsuk
Perhaps one of the most underrated bands in modern rock today, this is a great current box set to offer the modern rockin’ fan, and to make it even cooler, it arrives in classic vinyl plus MP3 download codes, perfect for the collector.
The box itself is a big part of the gift - designed by NY artist Kayrock and Wolfy, it’s impressive and sturdy, and just the right size to hold the enclosed five full-length studio LPs. Included here are Nada’s Elektra Records debut disc,High/Low plus The Proximity Effect, Let Go, the standout The Weight is a Gift, and their latest. A nifty booklet adds exclusive photos and tour poster reproductions.

Motown: The Complete Number Ones - Motown
Get serious about your music-giving with this set right from the Motor City; Motown is celebrating their 50th anniversary, too, with a collection that boasts 10 discs and - brace yourself - 191 songs, every single one of which has topped a U.S. and/or international chart.
All your Motown faves are here, from the early Motowners (The Marvelettes, The Miracles, The Isley Brothers) to the Big Names (Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, The Jackson 5), and all the way up through the ‘70s and ‘80s (Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, more Stevie Wonder, Boyz II Men.) Plus, you’ll get 10 bonus Motown tracks that hit the charts via their cover versions by the likes of David Bowie and Mick Jagger, Erykah Badu, and Coolio. It’s a tour of Motown’s heyday in one great box set.

Masterworks 100 - Brilliant Classics
And for the classical music fan on your list (or perhaps someone that you think would enjoy being introduced to this genre of music), the Masterworks 100 box set lives up to its title, with 100 CDs total in a shelf-ready set that covers 10 classic composers with 10 discs’ worth of music each.
Exceptional mastering has gone into this set, which includes music from Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Schubert, Handel, Teleman, Dvorak, Vivaldi, and Bach, so you can veer from piano concertos to organ works to flute sonatas at whim. They are, of course, lacking in their composer list (no Stravinsky? No Strauss? No Liszt?), but perhaps that will be remedied with a “Masterworks 100 Vol. 2” just in time for Christmas, 2009.