As a music fan, you know there are degrees of your enthusiasm for the music you love.

With some bands, you're only a fan of a song or two.  Back in the day, you might've owned their single on vinyl.  These days, you'd grab the MP3 (legally or otherwise).

If you liked a few songs from an artist, you might grab a compilation full of their best and brightest.  Maybe you'd like so much from a certain era of an artist's creativity that you'd even grab a full album.

Then comes the escalation.  For you, there are certain artists where you need each and every album out there.  Maybe it's the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd, AC/DC or the Eagles.  No matter which group is near and dear to your heart (and ears), you have to have them all.

Even the box sets.

This holiday season (there's no denying it's on its way now), there's a lot for you to choose from.  Sir Paul McCartney will release Good Evening, New York City, a 2 CD/1 DVD (2 DVDs for the deluxe edition) box set on November 17th.  AC/DC amps up the box set race with the release of Backtracks on November 11th, including 3 CDs, 2 DVDs, 1 LP, a 164-page book and more all enclosed in a working guitar amplifier.

It's all cool, but these aren't even the craziest box sets available this season. 

That credit (so far) has to go to German industrial metal band Rammstein.  They've recently put out their latest studio album, titled Liebe ist für alle da (Love is for everyone, in rough English) and have announced plans to release a special edition of the album (date and price coming soon).  The forthcoming box set will include five additional tracks, industrial strength handcuffs, lubricants (for people, not cars) and strangest of all, six pink dildos molded from the band members' members.

No joke.  Want to see a picture?  It's not safe for work, but click here. 

In terms of crazy releases, that's gonna be hard to top this year. 

As a music collector, what's your favourite box set?


Jason Ward is a Toronto-based writer and on-air host on Classic Rock Q107, heard on Q Saturday Afternoons from 12 to 6. WTF?! with Jason Ward is updated every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.