Thwarted by packaging
Having returned home with a CD copy of the new Magnetic Fields album, I found myself unable to remove the plastic jewel box from its cardboard slipcase, so tightly was it wedged inside.
Several hours have passed since then and the wretched thing has resisted all attempts to prise it out. The album is titled ‘Distortion'. Maybe I am required to distort the packaging if I want to hear the music.
This isn't the first time I have fallen victim to the record collector equivalent of being unable to get the lid off the jam jar: A Spaceman 3 tribute album came packaged in a slim box that appeared to be hermetically sealed and lacking the cut-out semi circles in the sides of the lid, that would have enabled both sections to be easily prised apart.
Then there was the occasion I was unable to open a standard compact disc case containing a Townes Van Zandt live album. The man behind the counter at the record shop examined the jewel box and concluded that the lid had been maliciously glued shut. When I asked him whether he thought the culprit was someone who held a grudge against Townes Van Zandt, he replied that he didn't know.
Who else here has found packaging forming an unexpected barrier between themselves and the music? Be sure to list any injuries or property damage sustained while attempting to remove the disc/cassette/8 track/wax cylinder etc.
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Yessongs
As a teenager, the 'interior of a fishtank' fantasy worlds depicted by Roger Dean on Yes album covers were rather appealing to me. That is until I bought 'Yessongs', the band's triple live album from 1973. The word 'triple' is key. The complex and abundant packaging meant that just locating the vinyl took a great deal of effort. It was as impenetrable as the music itself. One day I woke up and said to myself... 'this just isn't worth the hassle.'
Success!
At last disc box and slipcase are separated and it only took me 13 hours. I feel like I've just solved a Rubik's cube for the first time.
What becomes of the broken plastic?
Right on. If CD's are to survive the onslaught of downloads, certain irritations are going to have to be sorted once and for all.
a) Keep inlay booklets thin enough to remove and replace without ripping them to shreds or breaking the case.
b) Strengthen the middle bit where the CD goes to avoid that dispiriting tinkling sound of broken plastic bits when you open a new CD.
c) ALWAYS number the tracks. I don't care if that's not arty enough; my hectic lifestyle has no room for counting.
I had exactly the same
I had exactly the same trouble with exactly the same album!
A Biro pushed against the CD case slipped it out in under 3 hours!
Emmylou Harris
Among the things I got from the GLW for Xmas was Emmylou's Songbird Retrospective. There are 2 CD sized booklets in a slip case. One holds the CD's and the DVD and it all folds out in a line of cardboard envelopes out of which it is virtually impossible to extract the discs without ripping the packaging apart.