I think the new album may be the lesser of the new releases on the 23. I think this box set may blow all us fans away. 400 tracks is a huge amount of music. If you look at iTunes currently, they have all the albums (including the redundant "Best Ofs", and over 50 B-sides/mixes/singles/eps) and there are just over 200 tracks. This box has double the number of songs which can be found there.
I was glad to see a liner note-style "booklet" will be available as a .pdf file with the purchase of the box. Hopefully it will be more than just lyrics and photos.
I think we're going to get all the albums, including HTDAAB in the box (plus the B-sides associated with it already ie: Vertigo remix, Fast Cards, Neon Lights, etc) plus at least a representation of live tracks from all their major tours. Bono said during the ipod music event that demos would be on there. I'm hoping maybe the long-lost Joshua Tree ones will surface, plus who knows what else. I'm guessing some acoustic stuff, possibly the tracks from the HTDAAB DVD. I would be amazed if some of the Achtung Baby demos don't make it on as well. I think there's a good chance some of the early demos, from 80, might make it.
Either way, this will be over a day's worth of U2 (26 hours, I'm approximating, if each song is avg of 4 minutes). Over a gig of stuff. I just can't wait.
Additionally exciting is the idea that this stuff, these 400 tracks, will all be mastered. They will be quite simple to release on CD somewhere down the road as a traditional box (although not the "Complete U2" collection, as that would be 30 CDs worth of material). Someday, when the band finally calls it quits, there will be a LOT of material ready to put out as a line of vintage U2 collections.
Even cooler is that the will be releasing shows on the tour, although I am not clear from what I've read if it will be something loaded onto the ipod at the venue, or something that can be downloaded via iTunes.
So, again, I suggest that while the new album is great, the box set is something I've been waiting for for many many years. And now it's less than a week from being virtually real.
