The experience of listening to box-sets (an example with Genesis)!

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Eclipse

The experience of listening to box-sets (an example with Genesis)!

Post by Eclipse »

Hello people, quite a long post below, but I hope it can be useful to discover a new "experience on music listening"!
I absolutely love Genesis, and I have been rediscovering their music with a new vision (or better saying, new "listening habits!") since I have discovered this official Australian vinyl box-set of theirs, from 1986:

Genesis Boxed: A Genesis Musical History, 1986 Australian Box Set

Btw, I didn't buy this box, but the albums are all available in Spotify, and are not so hard to find in CD if one wishes to buy them.

What's so interesting, in my view, about it?
Well, it features all albums from Trespass until Duke. That's my favorite era of Genesis, their most "proggy" years, and it is my overall favorite sequence of albums (together with Pink Floyd's :wink: ).
The studio albums in total would take around 8h12min of listening. It is interesting to note that one can see each album as a suite, part of a bigger "work" unifying those albums, which would be the box-set itself.

Of course it is impossible to listen to 8+ hours of music without stops, so I usually start at the beginning of the day, and listen through it, during work when I can put phones, during other activities, and pause when necessary, continuing soon after.

I really felt this musical experience to be really interesting, and in this particular case of those amazing Genesis albums, is very rewarding to me!

I recommend people trying it with a box-set of their favorite bands, once they find a box containing the albums that better suit their tastes. Of course I strongly recommend this Genesis sequence of albums, to anyone into prog, and since it was an official release, one can consider it a unifying work of those great albums from Trespass until Duke. Those are 9 albums of pure prog magic!
Since I don't have those albums in vinyl, I listen though my Spotify account.

A quick note: this box also has a VHS of the Mama Tour, which is a good addition to the sequence of albums, since the tracklist features some of the strongest proggy live tracks of their early 80's era. But the real magic lies within those studio albums!

For us, Pink Floyd fans, the Discovery Box Set can be alternative. Though it is long, since it has everything until TDB, it may take much more pauses during the day. But it will be rewarding too!

Cheers!
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Re: The experience of listening to box-sets (an example with Genesis)!

Post by moodyblue »

I can't say I've ever bought one of these box sets where you get all the albums in sequence. All the artists I like, I have more or less got most of their catalogue.
I'd be far more interested in box sets dealing in live tours. Springsteen has many live shows you can buy over the years. I think they do box sets of certain tours, which are a great idea of you are into the artist.
As for Genesis, They are probably my favourite band through the years. I'd go for 'And Then There Were Three' if I had to pick one of their albums. 'Invisible Touch' must be my least favourite but every album, including that one, there are some great tracks.
Tresspass is wonderful. I've no idea what it must be like to listen to for the first time in just how it might strike people.
'
Eclipse

Re: The experience of listening to box-sets (an example with Genesis)!

Post by Eclipse »

moodyblue wrote: Wed Jan 13, 2021 11:54 pm I can't say I've ever bought one of these box sets where you get all the albums in sequence. All the artists I like, I have more or less got most of their catalogue.
I'd be far more interested in box sets dealing in live tours. Springsteen has many live shows you can buy over the years. I think they do box sets of certain tours, which are a great idea of you are into the artist.
As for Genesis, They are probably my favourite band through the years. I'd go for 'And Then There Were Three' if I had to pick one of their albums. 'Invisible Touch' must be my least favourite but every album, including that one, there are some great tracks.
Tresspass is wonderful. I've no idea what it must be like to listen to for the first time in just how it might strike people.
'
Yes, Trespass has a wonderful atmosphere! That's my favorite aspect of Genesis' music, especially those albums from Trespass until Duke.
I also love all their albums, even my least fav ones (IT, WCD and CAS) have some very good tracks, and they managed to develop a new kind of atmosphere within some of those songs from that era that's great to me too.


moodyblue wrote: Wed Jan 13, 2021 11:54 pm I can't say I've ever bought one of these box sets where you get all the albums in sequence. All the artists I like, I have more or less got most of their catalogue.

I never bought either. They can be costly, and sometimes they will not do justice to the individual albums (artwork-wise, for example).

But my idea here is the following: Since there's this official vinyl box-set (which I linked to in the first post), that spans all studio albums from Trespass until Duke, I suggest to Genesis' fans (and everyone else into epic musical listening experiences) to imagine this box as a "big 8h12min album" (this is the timespan of all those 9 studio albums put together in sequence).
This can be done by a spotify playlist for example, which I share here:

PLAYLIST FROM TRESPASS UNTIL DUKE


Question is: how to listen to 8 hours of music? Answer: through the day, with the necessary pauses, in practice those 8h will take a bit longer since many pauses are needed during the day, due to the overall tasks we have to perform. It still can be an amazing musical journey!
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Re: The experience of listening to box-sets (an example with Genesis)!

Post by moodyblue »

Eclipse wrote: Thu Jan 14, 2021 3:47 pm
But my idea here is the following: Since there's this official vinyl box-set (which I linked to in the first post), that spans all studio albums from Trespass until Duke, I suggest to Genesis' fans (and everyone else into epic musical listening experiences) to imagine this box as a "big 8h12min album" (this is the timespan of all those 9 studio albums put together in sequence).


Question is: how to listen to 8 hours of music? Answer: through the day, with the necessary pauses, in practice those 8h will take a bit longer since many pauses are needed during the day, due to the overall tasks we have to perform. It still can be an amazing musical journey!
A very interesting idea.

I know the albums back to front but to those lucky enough not to know the band too well, this would be a real voyage.