worst packaging ever?

Worst - David Sylvian's Everything and Nothing comp. Four-panel digipak: disc 1, bonus disc 3 in very snug slide-in slipcase, artwork, disc 2. Getting bonus CD out means folding pack back on itself or digging around in slip panel with fingernails. Yes, it's ripped.

Second most ambitiously worst packaging ever was a (drum roll) Flaming Lips single... again. This time, the "This Here Giraffe" part 2 CD-single.. the CD was cut into a star-shape.. so only top loading CD players can (maybe) play it. What makes it more frustrating is that the B-sides are one of the rare B-sides for the Lips that are GOOD! (Peel session versions of "Hit To Death" era songs)

My Spectrum gel-pack is still nice and gooey. Slayer put out a nice blood-gel pack once.

Now that I've finally got at the disc I feel more like playing Hüsker Dü than I do Múm.

My current buggabear is the metal Fabriclive cases.

bottleskup flenkenkenmike sucked... like the aluminum tunes packaging but worse... which, the LP copy of AT was ace. no sweat at all.

i hate all those cheap cases were the teeth break easily and cd shakes around inside. lame.

lot's of noise bands think it's just peachy to release stuff in weird packaging... it's a real scourge to deal with. i've got a whole shelf full of over-sized and oddly shaped cd packages. new faggot cunts put theirs in a cloth sleeve with a button. it's actually kind of nice, but still unweildy.

warp's use of book-style jackets is neat, but annoying to pay for. i remember the first one being gallo's record and it fit his 50s crooner thing and the old style LP jackets, but to see broadcast and boards of canada do it sort of lost the point to me.

was it aphex twin who had that odd 1.5-2 12" LPs wide monster lp thingy? it was like 12.5 x 25 inches or something. ugh.

odd shaped cds like the chinese stars annoy me too. if you don't have center-locked cd player, you have to hope you centered it in your computer's cd tray... and in general it's just gonna bitch and send it back out.

why don't bands go cheap and spend the extra on a dinner and a movie. really! treat yourself!
m.

DAMN YOU EDDIE VEDDER!!!!!! DAMN YOOOOOOU!!!

But it's the Fall! What are you expecting?

What pisses me off (while not a bad design) is Rykodisc's re-issues of the Mission of Burma back catalogue. It has a section saying 'The green tinted jewel case is trademarked' or something. How can you trademark colouring something green!?

Aesthetically, it's digipaks all the way. They're simply more gorgeous, almost every time. I have more problems with jewel cases breaking (those horrible tabs that hold the cover onto the bottom) than I do with any cardboard cases.

-- cutty (holler@thegod.com ), March 5th, 2004. (2 trackbacks)

cd or vinyl? i quite like the cd packaging... refried ectoplasm is pretty similar

This is one of the rarer times I got the Japanese version of a release by a band that's not Japanese. No unglued holes. No complaints! And I got "Freestyle Dumpling", the best damn cover of The Fall's "Slates, Slags, etc" ever! (though minus "Seeperbold")

I thought the point of those was that they did break the CDs. Was it not BC/CR being all precious about vinyl?

Still a fun lil album, though.

-- bill stevens (bscrubbin...), March 5th, 2004.

Ha ha. I actually went to school with the son of the guy who designed the hot side hot/cool side cool packaging and became a millionaire off of it. Son was an alcoholic, of course.

the same thing seems to have happened to most copies of john dowie's factory 45