NewsJohn Martyn / The Best of the Island Years: 4CD box set
Many of you will recall the John Martyn Island Years box set from last year. The 18-disc collection was memorable as much for the scale of the undertaking as for the amazing deals/pricing errors (delete as applicable) that came up on Amazon. At one point this massive set was available for around £30!!
Those deals are now a distant memory and you have to pay over £150 at the moment to pick up the big bastard of a box.
Cue then, The Best Of The Island Years, a new set described by Universal as a ‘four-disc digest’ of the definitive 18-disc collection. The 56 tracks here are culled from outtakes, unreleased and rare live recordings – basically best of the box – and includes the three unreleased songs included on the daddy set; Hi Heel Sneakers, from the Grace And Danger sessions; Love In Your Life from Sapphire and Lifeline from the Apprentice sessions.
The Best of the Island Years is set for release on 4 November 2014. Will update this post with track listings as soon as they are confirmed.
SuperDeluxeEdition.com helps fans around the world discover physical music and discuss releases. To keep the site free, SDE participates in various affiliate programs, including Amazon and earns from qualifying purchases.
Related Content
8 Comments
8 thoughts on “John Martyn / The Best of the Island Years: 4CD box set”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
The MP3 version of the full boxset was £1.29 on 7digital for 24 hours earlier this week!
I think I’ll wait for the best of the best of the best single CD
I think it’s good. Bound to be lots of JM fans who have the albums but thought the big box was too expensive (times are tight for many) just r to hear outtakes etc. This way it’s an affordable box with the prime cuts.
Hell , i have the big box but i might even get Santa to bring me this for in the car !
I’m liking the justification of needing both :)
Something of a misnomer, titling this set `The Best of the Island Years`.
‘Best of the stuff that didn’t make the cut the first time round’ would be closer to the truth, given that this is comprised entirely of outtakes/live cuts etc.
Not that this still can’t be a great set (I have the mega box, and there are some fantastic rarities, to be sure) – but it’s an odd sort of primer that doesn’t include the classic album versions of May You Never, Small Hours, Sweet Little Mystery……
Best of the Island Years BOX is I think what they mean… but you have a point, it sounds like they are saying this is the best of his years on Island Records, which is clearly isn’t. But despite the title I don’t think that was the intention…
This may be a bit cynical of me, but I can’t quite see the market for this. I mean, if it operates as a “best of” for Martyn “plus rarities,” we’re golden and newer fans can use it as a primer.
Otherwise, the only market for this would be people who wanted the big box (which I have and it’s a thing of beauty to be sure) but who… either didn’t feel like saving pennies for it… or? I mean, really, if you wanted the whole shebang, there’s no point to this.
Primer it is, then… At least, we can assume so given the lack of a posting track listing.