The Waterbabies

Scraping the Barrel, 12 hours of music, compiled, cleaned and edited by dedicated Gentle Giant fan & friend Dan Bornemark between 1998 and 2004. As the title indicates, this is it, the best of the rest. The box-set contains 3 CD's and a data disc, a good solution even so my personal choice which tracks to put on the data disc (128 K/bit for the majority) would have been slightly different…

A characteristically humongous (8-CD) box set from the wonderful obsessive-compulsives at Bear Family, documenting the Killer's '60s tenure at Smash Records. Lewis made consistently good music during this period, but the combination of his personal scandals and the British Invasion made him a pariah to radio programmers until mid-decade, when he returned to his country roots. Highlights of the set include the entirety of a Texas live show, with Lewis and his crack band rendering various early rock standards at dangerously high (i.e., proto punk) speed, some excellent duets with his (then) wife Linda Gail, and gorgeous renditions of standards like Willie Nelson's "Funny How Time Slips Away" and Merle Haggard's "Lonesome Fugitive." Lewis fans with deep pockets should grab this one immediately…

The soundtrack to Errol Morris' documentary The Thin Blue Line emphasizes story over music; the interviews which make up the majority of the film – a crusading effort which led to the the release of its subject, Randall Adams, from a Texas prison – are presented on record as they were on screen, with Glass' chamber orchestra music hovering in the background. The result is a soundtrack which comes remarkably close to capturing the power of its source film; even without the moving images, this is a chilling document.

Beastie Boys fans should prepare for a feast with this two-DVD collection from the Criterion collection (Capitol Records had planned a regular collection, but seem to have abandoned it along the way.) The collection is not by any means completely comprehensive (there are 18 videos included), but it does manage to be exhaustive in terms of what it does cover (and offer.) Each disc includes nine videos, with each group presented twice – the first is a sequential presentation that offers a choice of Dolby 2.0, Dolby 5.1, band commentary track, or directors commentary track.