Re: HTWWW packaging critique (very esoteric)

["Thomas B. Efird" <tbe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

YEah....something of a weak cover, but honestly? I could care less since 
most of the time I am driving while listening to music....so its not 
like I can look at the cover art behind the wheel. Besides, I remember 
back when vinyl was around, I could get free posters (pink floyd) and 
other cool stuff......so, I care more about the music.
T

Josh Mooney wrote:

>      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.