There were groans around the world when this box set was announced. Another box set! After the cheapy original albums, 5CD set and the Japanese SACD box and the Steven Wilson CTTE remix. So much Yes! But actually Rhino haven't done too bad a job on this set. They have attempted to reproduce the original LP sleeves. Gatefolds are all there, including the double gatefold for GFTO. In order to show the titles on the spine, the single sleeves are a bit too roomy and the CD easily slips out. At least they have the lettering. There are no inner bags, so no lyrics for CTTE or Relayer for instance and no info at all for Tormato.
As there are no booklets, all track info is only printed on the CD, which is a bit of a problem when listening to the disc and want to know what is playing. The quality of the sleeves, card and printing is not too bad. Not up to the standard of the Japanese mini sleeves of course, but much better than normally passes in the West for card sleeves. The original label designs are also printed on the discs which is a nice touch.
If you are a Big Generator fan, then you will want the box as this is the first time the remastered edition has been made available outside of the Japanese versions. You also get all the remixes which were included on the Japanese SHM mini LP version of 2009.
If you have a set of the original Rhino's and want to replace those by this box as a space saving exercise or as an upgrade away from jewel cases and digipaks then the box has it's merits. You could put all the original booklets into the single sleeve wallets with no problem and between the folds of the gatefolds. They will still all fit into the box.
I got my box for under £30, which is remarkable for a 13 disc set with all the bonus tracks, housed in a nice sturdy box. You could argue for a few quid more, they could have produced a reasonable booklet with all the album credits at least. But it's still a nice set for what it is.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment