All favorites of mine, you know them all well

So a little more as to why I am so excited about the box set from Tori Amos coming out soon:

We'll start with the packaging. It's deluxe! It resembles a piano! I am a marketer's dream, a fanboy geek and I'm a sucker for fancy schmancy packaging. If you're going to do a box set, you have to make it pretty.

Then there's the track listing. All those alternate versions from Little Earthquakes! Four of them! And the previously unreleased unedited version of Crucify. I am oddly not a fan of the single version that was made more radio friendly and edited in the most bizarre place (the lyric of "please save me, I cry" is truncated to the point of stupidity).

Under The Pink has its fair share of alternate versions too, including probably her finest moment, Yes, Anastasia. I'm sort of glad that Boys For Pele is getting the short shrift as it's my least favourite of her albums. The few songs that are included are my favorites off the album, so that works out. Then she's included the live version of Professional Widow that's titled The Merry Widow Version which is terrifying and brilliant in equal measure.

Disc 3 makes me a little cross, because there's the hateful horrible dance remix of Professional Widow, a remixed version of Bliss and Doughnut Song (two of her best songs) and the live version of Waitress from To Venus & Back which is far too long and way overdone (the other live version from the Past The Mission EP would have been much more welcome).

On Disc 4 there are remixed versions of two of my favorite From The Choirgirl Hotel which again makes me nervous, especially as Playboy Mommy really doesn't need ANY remixing. The final "eh" inclusion comes on the final disc with the remastered and utterly ruined version of Mary from the Tales Of A Librarian compilation from 2003.

But, oh the new songs! Zero Point is finally seeing the light of day! Fans have known of its existence since a liner note in 1999 on To Venus & Back noted that "your time is coming". I was beginning to wonder if it hadn't morphed into another song, like Just Another Dead Fag became Taxi Ride and I'm fairly certain that Freshly Mown Grass became Parasol. And all those demos! And the B-sides! It's all too too much for a geek boy fan. I own every CD single Tori Amos has ever released (even the one she didn't from Strange Little Girls, an album which is noticeable by its absence here) so I am just beside myself that there is a TON of stuff here I have never heard before. If there's full color booklets and picture CDs with it, well I'll be in geek heaven.

Bring it on.