Pink Floyd Album: “Shine On”

I bought this Boxed set back when itcame out in 1992. For me it was a great investment as I did not have any Pink Floyd CD. I was totally blown away by the excelent work that it was putted into this set. Every aspect in this set has been thought out from the record cases to the way they are set together to produce the Dark Side of The Moon cover.

The two most relevant aspects of this set are the sound production which is simply spotless making each record shine with new life. The second plus is the book that comes with the set. Each chapter is about the records included in the box. For each CD theres is detailed information on lyrics, cover art conception, photos, press releases during the time as well as band information or interviews relevant to the period.

This was at the time the most ambicious box set to come from a rock band in CD format and I must say that it did not dissapoint at the moment. Today many of the music has already been released in single CD so the hype of having all these albums in a box set many not be as appealing as it was back in 1992. Nevertheless, it is still an impressive body of work.

I have the greatest wife. What does that have to do with the Floyd you ask? Well, she hates them. But for my anniversary, she bought me this boxed set. That is true love.I have listened to Floyd since before the advent of CDs (wow, that's a long time huh?). So, my collection was for the most part cassettes, and only a couple of CDs. Shine On allowed me to replace all of my technologically outdated Floyd albums with an awesome set of digitally remastered CDs, and a bonus CD with cuts of their early stuff (including two of my favs, See Emily Play and Careful With That Axe Eugene).Add to that some cool repackaging, cool post cards, and last but not least, a great full color, hardback book full of lyrics, old reviews and snippets from the band. I love this set! If you already own the CDs, it may not be a justifiable cost. But if you are an old time Floyd fan like me, take this opportunity to update your collection. You won't regret it!

I can't see giving this wonderfully packaged boxset more than 2 stars because no matter what the hype and hoopla, the simple point of contention is CONTENT. Much like the later, elaborately-packaged and hyped 2CD Pulse set, this box is not necessary at all. 8 CDs of stuff you can buy at any decent CD store and ONE CD of old singles you can't buy. A very nice book, but folks, the reason you buy a boxset is MUSIC. Pink Floyd was around for over 25 years when this thing was released. How about a boxset of, um, unreleased material? Maybe not 9 CDs, but maybe a nice 4 CD set. Alternate versions, unused songs, live material, demos. Anything Floyd fans can't get everywhere else. Soon after this was released the now-defunct Great Dane bootleg label from Italy released a fantastic 4CD Floyd boxset that is or was worth every penny, and it was cheaper than this one. It had live material, unreleased stuff, and basically all the kind of stuff Floyd should give its longtime fans. But the Floyd today is more like a corporate machine than a band. In the last 11 years they have adapted the formula of releasing a so-so studio album, followed by a costly but fun gigantic tour and then not one but TWO double live CD sets. God and Dave Gilmour's accountant only know if we will ever see another new Pink Floyd album in our lifetimes. What we don't need is any more repackaging of what's been around (and it's all good) for so long. Give the fans what they want! Give us stuff we have not heard!

A deluxe (and expensive) box set featuring 7 albums, 1 previously unreleased singles collection, for a total of 9 cds (all remastered), some postcards, a 112-page booklet with full lyrics and rare photos, a special holder for the cds, and deluxe packaging. I'm sure you can tell what albums it includes from the songs listed above, so I'll spare you that detail. Well if you don't own these albums then go right out and get this box set, since it would be cheaper than buying them separately, and you get all the extras. If you already own them however, you may want to get it for the book and singles cd (if you really wanna hear Careful With... that is), probably not though.

Being a huge Floyd fan, I have everything ever pressed by THE band. Redundancies run galore in my collection with "Dark Side of the Moon", the 20th anniversary of said album, the live performance of said album in its entirety on "Pulses", the "Shine On" copy of said album, and now the 30th anniversary of said album. Enough said. But, where does one draw the line with redundancy in Floyd material? I say, at "Shine On". Yes, I give it two stars. One, for packaging, and two, for the ninth disc of "Early Singles".

The packaging is great. The disc designs are very "Lawnmower Man"-ish in design housed in solid black jewel cases with a small recreation of the album cover on the front. When all eight discs are in the proper order, the spines display the "Dark Side of the Moon" cover. Pretty neat. Included in the set is a small book that gives brief history, some photos and the lyrics to the song (which we all know anyway), plus several postcards and a handy slipcase for your discs.

The second worthwhile portion of this set is the ninth disc, "Early Singles". Some of these songs can be found elsewhere, but there are a couple of good cuts here that cannot be found easily. "Julia Dream" the futuristic sounding tune, and the Beatle-ish sounding "Point Me at the Sky".

The great thing about buying a boxed set is the extras, mostly unreleased or live tracks. There is really none of that here. You receive eight discs, which you probably already have, and maybe four songs, which you probably don't have, for a whopping price. The insides are attractive, but there is nothing new here. "Animals" from "Shine On" is no different from the plain vanilla "Animals". Skip "Shine On", there are other things more worthwhile to spend your money on.