"The Kiosk Collection (Spanish Edition)" - U2

Album Collection

Track Listing:

Background Information

The Kiosk Collection is a box set of releases done in conjunction between Universal Records and El Pais, a daily newspaper in Spain. On September 21, 2015 it was announced that there would be a box set of U2 recordings, with one release each week, retailing at 9.95 Euro. The full set would contain 18 releases, a mix of audio and video releases. The first release, The Joshua Tree would come with a box to house the entire collection. The first release was timed to match when U2 were playing in Spain on the Innocence and Experience tour and the final release is due to arrive on January 31, 2016. The different releases could be bought in newsstands in Spain.

To make the collection more unique, each album was released in a gatefold card sleeve, with a booklet on one side, and room for the disc on the other. Most of these releases had never been released outside of a jewel case in the past, making this unique. The releases were only available in this format in Spain. Each disc is labeled as being from Spain, “Distributed by Ediciones El Pais S.L.”, however, the CDs for this release were pressed by Universal in Germany. In the cases where there have been remasters, it is the remaster that has been released as part of this program. The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby were the versions released in 2007 and 2011 for instance.

The full set of releases is as follows:

  • The Joshua Tree (October 4, 2015)
  • Achtung Baby (October 11, 2015)
  • Songs of Innocence (October 18, 2015)
  • Rattle and Hum (October 25, 2015)
  • The Unforgettable Fire (November 1, 2015)
  • War (November 8, 2015)
  • Boy (announced for November 15, 2015, now listed for January 3, 2016)
  • Zooropa (announced for November 22, 2015, released November 15, 2015)
  • All That You Can’t Leave Behind (announced for November 29, 2015, released November 22, 2015)
  • October (December 6, 2015)
  • How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (December 13, 2015)
  • Under a Blood Red Sky (December 20, 2015)
  • Pop (December 27, 2015)
  • No Line on the Horizon (January 3, 2016)
  • “U2360° At the Rose Bowl” DVD (January 10, 2016)
  • “U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle” DVD (January 17, 2016)
  • “Zoo TV Live from Sydney” DVD (January 24, 2016)
  • “Live from Red Rocks” DVD (January 31, 2016)

As part of the promotion for this box set El Pais set up a promotional site at http://elpais.com/especiales/2015/u2/ including news articles about the band, streaming tracks through Spotify, and PDF posters for the first four releases. They also promoted the collection with actual print posters for the releases each week around Spain.

In the seventh week, initial advertising had promised the release of Boy, but most retailers had received Zooropa instead. In the eighth week, instead of Boy retailers received All That You Can’t Leave Behind. It is known that some copies of Boy did ship in the seventh week as planned but retailers who received these were asked to return all copies. It was said that there were technical difficulties with the discs, but no detail beyond that was provided. Boy was pushed to the end of the audio releases and came out January 3, 2016, with all other audio releases moved ahead one week.

A few noticeable differences from the original releases have been noted in these pressings. The cover and print on the outside of War was not the bright red we are accustomed to, and instead is almost a gold colour instead. The booklet packaged inside the gatefold is the traditional red in colour. And on All That You Can’t Leave Behind there is a typo on the outer track listing, instead of “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” the song is listed as “Stuck in a Moment Which You Can’t Get Out Of”. Whoops.

In the first three weeks the releases were pressed with a magazine sized insert, containing the UPC, track listing and album art. This was discontinued in the fourth week and the releases from the fourth week onward is just the CD with an outer layer of stretch wrap, and a UPC stuck to the outside of the stretch wrap.

In 2015 and 2016, a “Kiosk Collection” was also issued in Portugal. In many cases the CDs were the same and the only difference in the weekly release was a small sticker on the back of the stretch wrap. But there were some differences, the first three CDs were released with backing material that was in Portuguese instead of using the same material as the Spanish collection. We have a separate entry for this Portugal released set.

Liner Notes

Related Promotional Videos

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Catalog of Releases