Kent - Box 1991-2008 [10CD] (2008)

Riding high on the success of their 7th album, Tillbaka Till Samtiden (2007), which won them a pair of Swedish Grammy Awards for Group of the Year and Album of the Year, Kent released Box 1991-2008, a mammoth ten-CD box set spanning their entire recording career and compiling practically everything they'd ever issued, including B-sides and quite a bit of unreleased material. The ten CDs in the box are split up according to each of the band's full-length albums -- Kent (1995), Verkligen (1996), Isola (1997), Hagnesta Hill (1999), Vapen & Ammunition (2002), Du & Jag Döden (2005), and Tillbaka Till Samtiden (2007) -- plus the double-disc B-sides compilation B-Sidor 95-00 (2000) and The Hjärta & Smärta EP (2005). Each of these CDs includes bonus material corresponding to the era: 26 bonus tracks in total, 15 of them previously unreleased. Since the band's early B-sides are compiled on B-Sidor 95-00, much of the bonus material found on Box 1991-2008 is comprised of live and demo recordings, including four songs that predate Kent: two of them dating back to when the band was named Jones och Giftet ("Håll I Mig," "Ögon") and another couple dating back to when the band was named Havsänglar ("Klocka Clock," "Cirkel Circle"). All in all, there are 133 tracks spread across the ten discs of Box 1991-2008, and if this weren't enough to entice fans, the box set also includes a 96-page book filled with photos, a tour history, song lyrics, and a special interview with Swedish journalist Jan Gradvall. All that's truly missing from this package is a video component, perhaps a DVD of promotional videos or live performances. All the same, Box 1991-2008 is a treasure trove for fans of Sweden's greatest rock band at the turn of the century.