Every classic, from "Blitzkrieg Bop" to "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World," bleeds fresh energy. The three CDs of stereo and mono mixes, demos, single versions, and two blistering live sets from 1976 L.A. are killer, but the new vinyl makes purchasing this box mandatory.

Sketchy sound quality (on The Vanilla Tapes), to be sure, but its rawness makes the final product that much more impressive.

50 years on still doesn't obscure its frivolity. Paul McCartney dominates vocally and compositionally, and a mind-bending stereo remaster redefines the psychedelic summit while making the mono mix on disc 4 superfluous, but a pair of demo discs single out John Lennon's backbone contributions in multiple takes of pre-LP single "Strawberry Fields," plus "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" and "A Day in the Life."

Nearly a half-century after the sometimes haphazard creation, this music retains every bit of its intimacy, mystery, and resonance, and The Basement Tapes Complete boxes it up with the respect and insight it demands.

Unsurprisingly, the true treasure for devotees occurs in long-vaulted studio moments.

The 6-disc set witnesses the studio process as it unfolded 50 years ago, particularly the CD unfolding the complete session for "Like a Rolling Stone."... Experience history in real time.

It's as if this box set wants to prove Slint was human, not just a faceless menace that cut a record lost to time and circumstance, worthy of celebration and also fitting neatly in a box.

VU arrived in Los Angeles with new bass player Doug Yule to track its third and final LP for MGM Records, here excavated as a 6-CD set. Bassist/keyboardist/viola virtuoso Cale's absence proved sonically profound.

The usual ephemeral padding--an extensive oral history rendered redundant by the documentary, a poster, and a replica of Simon's legal pad of lyrics--fills the linen-bound Graceland deluxe, which footnotes the remastered album with a 25-minute bonus CD of demos mostly heard on previous editions, though a 10-minute "The Story of 'Graceland'" audio deconstruction by Simon sums up the box in a song.

The second CD of Led Zeppelin III expands on its mothership's psychograss exhilaration.

Sound System presents the complete Clash, lovingly remastered on six discs, comprising the five studio LPs the classic lineup released between 1977 and 1982, plus a 3-CD set featuring non-LP singles and B-sides. A DVD unspools archival footage, plus every video. The sonic upgrade sounds best on the earliest material.

Hearing the newly recorded album as a completed work instead of dismembered modules is a rollicking reassertion of Wilson's compositional genius.

Kudos to White's preservation of Lynn's loving, narrative songwriting even when paired with his own grittier sensibilities. In doing so, the two unlikely bedfellows have cut a classic.

This self-titled album, released on UK indie Rough Trade in 1988, began her journey to becoming a household name. In a newly remastered 2-disc edition, Lucinda Williams blossoms all over again.

The fearsome foursome's eponymous, 1969 debut pairs its volcanic blues and folk with a raw performance from that same year in Paris.

"Black Dog" and "Over the Hills and Far Away" back-to-back are gonzo.

Stepping upward into the macro, the album's landmark achievement lies in Kendrick Lamar's elevation of hip-hop into subtle invisibility, his blackness not exclusively tied to the rapper image.

Authoritatively illustrating why, the 4-CD Keep an Eye on the Sky might be considered compilation overload on this admittedly obscure Memphis quartet for the newcomer, but cultists and anyone interested in some of the purest guitar pop ever made will find lots and lots to love.

Two decades later ... these weighty collections still earn and own those [accolades].

Gainsbourg's whispered nothings are mystery no more, translated here alongside the French lyrics. While there are no bonus tracks, the accompanying booklet features extensive essays from music writer Andy Beta and electronic musician Andy Votel.

Despite the box set's girth and groovy 3-D cover, anyone who's not a hardcore completist or David Leaf understudy will be sated by the 2-CD version.

Led Zeppelin II binds the biggest and baddest of the group's heavyweight first chapter with the thinest of extras, 33 minutes of early mixes and backing tracks.

Master of Puppets realized the band's greatest strengths, coalescing hardcore punk with progressive metal.

It's a sharp look at how a major artist sees his own work, set to a soundtrack that's held up incredibly well.

One of his most accomplished recordings.

Through thick and thin, Kanye West proves the ultimate curator and host, the master of his domain.

1993's Icky Mettle thumps Warp's warpath between lo-fi sad sackery ("You and Me") and shitstorm post-post punk ("Sick File"). The Archers of Loaf vs. The Greatest of All Time EP ignites a bonus disc as anthemic as 1977 Clash ("Bathroom").

Not only does it capture the unstructured verse of a masked maniac within a sheer net of plausibility, it parades his inner dementia among instrumental adornments of the highest order.