There Is a Season is a four-CD and one DVD box set by the American rock band the Byrds that was released on September 26, 2006 by Columbia/Legacy. It comprises 99 tracks and includes material from every one of the band's twelve studio albums, presented in roughly chronological order. The bonus DVD features ten clips of the Byrds lip-synching their hits on television programs between 1965 and 1967. 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.

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". 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. 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. 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.

Reception

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. 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." 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." 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".

Track listing

NOTE: Tracks marked ‡ are previously unreleased.

Disc one

Disc two

Disc three

Disc four