People will say otherwise, but music didn't suck in the '80s -- it just went underground. As the well-financed end of the art form turned to synthetic sounds, the punk and new wave of the late '70s evolved and mutated in the capable hands of scores of independent-minded musicians.

This four-disc boxed set (82 tracks!) celebrates the stuff that dwelt just beneath the topsoil -- everything from R.E.M., The Smiths, and The Cure to Black Flag, Ministry, and The Cramps. The spiritual progeny of a boxed set ancestry that includes Loud, Fast & Out Of Control, Nuggets, and No Thanks! The '70s Punk Rebellion, Left of the Dial houses four digipack CDs in a lidded box. A separately bound 64-page book features essays and notes by independent rock writers Karen Schoemer, John Srebalus, Tim Scanlin, and Kathleen Billus, plus written reflections from The Dream Syndicate's Steve Wynn and Factory Records' Tony Wilson, and Q&As with SST's Greg Ginn and Twin/Tone's Peter Jesperson.