HTWWW packaging critique (very esoteric)

[Josh Mooney <jdmooney@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

      HTWWW: The sounds? Amazing/beautiful, and I'll have my say on that
later. 
     But for right now, I'd like to find someone/anyone who doesn't think
the CD packaging is extremely weak. It almost seems like they only had a
week or two to throw something together in a hurry. But why would that be???
(And I know a bit of what I'm talking about, as I worked for a long time as
an editor and a photo editor for a national magazine, collaborating with
production designers, graphic artists and photographers to put out a
visually stimulating product every month).
      The cover image: A composite of four photos I daresay we¹ve all seen
before. They¹re give an "Old West"-style sepia tone, and are set against a
meaningless abstract background. This image is repeated, heavily screened
back, three times on the inside. And that¹s it! The album-title typeface is
done in that "Old West Wanted Poster" font (while the band¹s name is not,
for some reason). That font¹s in keeping with the title, I guess, but why
not show some imagination and do, for instance some kind of "Wanted" poster
of the boys? (You know, like: "Wanted?--Alive and Kicking Ass. . ." or some
such). The back cover, a simple black-on-white track list/credits, is as
perfunctory as it could be. The image on the discs themselves, a silhouette
of the Swan Song label icon, with a few splashes of color, is hardly
inspired. And the absence of any photos from these shows is most glaring.
      Liner notes? Oh yeah---there ain¹t none. Hell, even "Song Remains" got
a nice, inspired bit from Cameron Crowe. Naturally, I enjoyed Pagey¹s little
two-sentence comment. But did he really think, say or write "an illustration
of How The West was Won"? Didn't the title come first, with Page making his
"quote" fit? If so, then Page comes across as a publicist writing press-kit
copy. Overall, the packaging displays not a molecule of "power, mystery and
the hammer of the gods," or for that matter, any hint of "tight but
loose-ness." 
     How many boots do I have with much better packaging? Many, going all
the way back to "The Trade Mark of Quality Masters Volume One" from over a
decade ago. Remember when Pagey used to put his led foot down to make
certain the album-cover art was the way he wanted it to be? I do. Boy, I
miss Hipgnosis. Oh yeah, one final complaint: I need both hands and about
six fingers, a clean, flat surface, and a fairly advanced yoga pose, to pry
the CDs themselves from their holders. Am I the only one, or did I get a
defective set? I keep thinking they¹re gonna snap in two as I try to release
them! Such might cause a lesser man great consternation. And I am a lesser
man.