There Is a Season is a four-CD and one DVDbox set by the American rockbandthe Byrds that was released on September 26, 2006 by Columbia/Legacy.[1] It comprises 99 tracks and includes material from every one of the band's twelve studio albums, presented in roughly chronological order.[1] The bonus DVD features ten clips of the Byrds lip-synching their hits on television programs between 1965 and 1967.[1] Upon release, the box set failed to reach the Billboard 200 chart or the UK Albums Chart. There Is a Season supplants the band's earlier box set, The Byrds, which was released in October 1990.[2]
Contents
Unlike the band's earlier box set, There Is a Season includes material pre-dating the band's 1965 debut single for Columbia Records "Mr. Tambourine Man".[1] This pre-fame period in the group's history is represented by a number of demo recordings from the band's 1964 rehearsals at World Pacific Studios in Los Angeles (when they were known as the Jet Set), and both sides of a 1964 single released by the group under the pseudonym the Beefeaters.[3] The set also includes selections from the band's 1973 reunion album Byrds and two 1973 recordings from the Banjoman film—a period also not covered by the first box set.[1]There Is a Season includes more songs written by founding member Gene Clark, as a response to fan criticism that the first box set had neglected to properly represent his contributions to the band.[4]
Although There Is a Season was generally well received critically, a number of reviews expressed disappointment over the relatively small number of previously unreleased tracks included in the set. Joe Tangari, writing for Pitchfork Media, praised the compilation's well-chosen track listing but expressed confusion as to who the box set was aimed at, since most hardcore fans would already own the majority of its contents.[7]Alexis Petridis was also unenthusiastic about the contents of the set in his review for The Guardian: "Bearing only five previously unreleased tracks – all live, all with a distinct air of 'so what?' – There Is a Season smacks less of curating an important artist's legacy than of record company desperation at the lucrative back-catalogue well running dry."[5]
This opinion was echoed by Richie Unterberger, who commented on the AllMusic website: "the point of putting out another four-CD Byrds box set about 15 years later wasn't all that clear, unless it was a mercenary exercise to get more mileage out of the band's durable catalog."[1] Michael Franco's review for the PopMatters website was more upbeat and described the box set as "a must-have for any serious collector of music" and "the definitive collection of The Byrds".[8]
