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Another Cyber Monday is here, which means one thing at Second Disc HQ: it’s time to launch our annual Holiday Gift Guide, featuring a few of our favorite things for the music enthusiast in your life. Sure, we might not have included raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but we’ve filled the guide with more than 50 essential selections: box sets (such as the amazing Elton John title to your right!) as well as archival releases and Christmas music favorites that just might make great stocking stuffers. So just click here to access this year’s top picks, reflecting the diversity of music released this year in genres including rock, pop, soul, country, gospel, prog, jazz, folk, standards, Broadway, classical, and more!
You’ll notice that the Gift Guide is in the same easy-to-use format as our Release Calendar, so you can search for a title by a favorite artist, filter by your favorite genre, or even look for a particular title! We’ve drawn from almost our entire year’s worth of coverage, so take a peek. While we can’t include everything (and that includes a tremendous amount of equally worthy releases!), you might just find that perfect present for a loved one or even for yourself, whether a massive box set or a single compact disc.
Remember to watch this space for more festivities and full-length Holiday Gift Guide Reviews coming soon from The Second Disc – and most importantly, please stay safe during this holiday season.
Visit our 2020 Holiday Gift Guide!
i see you have Tears for Fears’ The Seeds of Love box set on the guide. I pre-ordered the box in August 2020. The release date came and roughly six weeks later my order was canceled. Now Amazon has one listed “collectible” for $329. Do you guys have any contacts at Universal Music / Mercury? This set seems to have been either pretty limited or maybe it’s just being repressed? I’d really like to have it since I have The Hurting and Songs from the Big Chair sets. Any information you could provide would be great.
I’m so sorry that you had such a disappointing experience, Robert. I know Amazon has let a lot of us down during the pandemic. It appears that the box set is now sold out, even through TFF’s and Universal’s official storefronts. It is possible that it will be re-pressed, as there was clearly a great demand for it. We’ll report back if that turns out to be the case.
Thanks Joe. I also pre-ordered, but through Universal’s own Canadian branch (MusicVaultz) and was extremely disappointed to learn that they didn’t get enough to meet preorders at all. How does the label itself not have enough for its own orders?
Same thing happened with the prior 2 boxes…sold out & jumped over $100…I did get mine, thank goodness…here’s a top…if you live in NYC or near, Rough Trade in Brooklyn has a copy sitting on a rack looking for a home…not sure how much it is there, but it’s surely better than $329…
Tip…
The Elton John box is not that good. The late 60s demos are simply that demos with some cringe worthy moments. 2 or 3 CDs of previous released material is also a waste. They should have included studio outtakes or other b-sides from 1969 to 1976 which were not included here. A waste of money in my opinion.
Thanks for reading, Adrian! I couldn’t disagree more about the worth of the early recordings; I savored every moment of those three discs (although I wish all of the songs from “Regimental Sgt. Zippo” had been included; one was dropped) as well as the two discs of B-sides. It’s fair game to question the amount of previously released and readily available material on the remaining three discs, but I believe those songs are close to Elton and I enjoyed his liner notes/commentary about them as well as the chance to hear them in a new context. Diff’rent strokes! Watch this space for a full review of the box set soon. 🙂