Best case designs, liner notes & album art

[alan nagsworth]

Special editions ahoy! I like things that look nice and of course CD cases are no exception. In fact they are top of the list. I like it when albums come in the post and they're cardboard cases as opposed to plastic, they look a lot less "artificial". But that's just the tip of the iceberg, there are some crazy sleeve designs out there like Tool's '10,000 Days' which is totally awesome. For those who've not seen it, it comes with these special eyeglasses and several little cards with psychedelic imagery on them. Looking at these images through the glasses (through a little squinting and adjusting and opening of third eye) slowly transforms them into glorious 3D. They look gorgeous and the 3D thing works really well.

Other examples ... hmm, I really like the inlay of acetate pages in Lateralus (also Tool), where each one peels away a layer of a human body through muscle, bone, internal organs etc. The artist (whose name escapes me) is a damn genius, he has some incredible work. Also if you didn't notice, on the guy's brain on the last layer is the word 'GOD'.

The Unicorns' album 'Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?' is one of my favourite album covers and overall design. As well as the beautiful cover (below), it's a cardboard case and on the inside there's lots of lovely details in the liner notes (including, at the bottom in real tiny letters, 'fuck what you heard - still jenny from the block') and on the opposite side, all the lyrics are written but not in the conventional sense: At the top, each song title is written in a different colour and beneath it each song's lyrics are layered on top of each other in their corresponding colours. It's basically a big fucking mess and you can only justmake out a word or a line here and there, but it's the fact they went to the effort that makes me smile. And inside the back cover is a pink paper sleeve containing the CD itself. It's just as cute and cuddly as their music is.



Venetian Snares' 'Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett' has a song which starts with a woman detailing her fear of pigeons in a quite unnerving but slightly humorous way, and the cover itself is a photo of pigeons in flight. When I bought it, I didn't expect much as usually the liner notes are just 'All music written and produced by Aaron Funk', but this album features a nice little write up, comparing his music to the life of a pigeon. It's utterly ludicrous but profoundly gorgeous at the same time. I'll try and find it later.

More later when I have time to think a bit more!

[CaledonianGonzo]

A generation of vinyl enthusiasts and sleeve-design afficionados weeps  ;-)

Ummm...that zipper on Sticky Fingers:

[wherearethespoons]

The gatefold editions of Lemon Jelly's albums are nice. Plus the superb job they did on the Spacewalk single - where the CD slips in neatly as part of the design. Actually, they always had decent designs.

[purlieu]

I've always preferred jewel cases over digipacks/weird things - in fact, if possible, I always choose the jewel case.
However, anyone who has the collectors box edition of In Rainbows will understand how I made an exception for it.

[alan nagsworth]

Hey I'm not limiting this thread to CDs, Caledonian! I love that zipper sleeve too, but I wish there was a cock behind it or something. An anti-climax, so to speak.

Good nomination WATS, Lemon Jelly have awesome designs. But, that design looks different to the one I have. Mine's a standard plastic case inside a cardboard sleeve and the sleeve only features half of that image you posted. In the actual case, the front and back covers are the same image plus a city, only at night time with lots of street lights and stuff. Either way it's gorgeous, though.

CaledonianGonzo, do you have a copy of Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? I took a few snaps of the sleeve design to show the psychedelic beauty of it and then found some on Google Images as well, mine are more close-up so I've decided to just stick both up here:







Also, the cheesy but awesome inlay of The Prodigy's Music For The Jilted Generation deserves a mention. The police trying to break up an illegal rave, but the raver is slicing the rope to the only bridge with a machete, flipping the bird! Oh yes. Not only is it great but it had an awesome send-up in Kid606's 'Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You' album, which I've also uploaded.

The Prodigy:


Kid606:

[wherearethespoons]

that design looks different to the one I have. Mine's a standard plastic case inside a cardboard sleeve and the sleeve only features half of that image you posted. In the actual case, the front and back covers are the same image plus a city, only at night time with lots of street lights and stuff.

With their three albums to date, a limited number have been released as cardboard 'gatefold' editions. They open up fully, such as the one above, and have two pockets, in the side two of the three panels. Inside one is a smoothly printed tracklist and in the other is the cd in a slipcase.

[alan nagsworth]

Ooh get you!

(actually I have the gatefold edition of '64-95' and it's lovely!)

[tarmac]

I enjoy this 'Peeping Tom' case, a slightly tacky interactive cardboard monstrosity.  When you pull the little tab on the right, the CD slides out on a tray from the left and a big gawping eye appears through the keyhole.  You have to see it to be impressed, really.

Also consider the chocolate scented re-release of MM..FOOD by MF DOOM:

[alan nagsworth]

That Peeping Tom case sounds awesome!

I was really pissed off when my Mm.. Food arrived as it wasn't shrink-wrapped, and didn't come with the poster or sticker... but really for £10 it comes with that sick live DVD so I can't complain. I think mine was a UK edition or something?

[chand]

Also, the cheesy but awesome inlay of The Prodigy's Music For The Jilted Generation deserves a mention. The police trying to break up an illegal rave, but the raver is slicing the rope to the only bridge with a machete, flipping the bird! Oh yes. Not only is it great but it had an awesome send-up in Kid606's 'Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You' album, which I've also uploaded.

The Prodigy:

The Prodigy one is cool, but is it as cool as Monster Magnet running over the Pope in a flaming car full of buxom waitresses?

[alan nagsworth]

Haha! Not in the slightest! That's brilliant.

[Anon]

However, anyone who has the collectors box edition of In Rainbows will understand how I made an exception for it.

In total agreement with you there - whereas the front cover looks a bit ugly on the standard CD issue, it looks absolutely magnificent on the vinyl-book the box edition comes in.  The book of extra artwork's lovely stuff as well.  I still think I prefer the artwork on Amnesiac (or at least the special-edition library book version I have) and Hail To The Thief, but the box presents the In Rainbows design in a much better light (and has extra songs, which is always nice!).

In terms of great case designs, I've got to mention Friend or Foe by Menomena, where the insert's had several holes cut in it so that if you rotate the CD, you can alter the cover slightly (probably best to check out the pictures at http://sleevage.com/menomena-friend-and-foe/ to see what I mean), which is pretty damn snazzy.  The heat-sensitive CD for Year Zero by Nine Inch Nails, which goes from black to white after being played before reverting is pretty cool as well, even if it is even more desperately gimmicky than the similarly fun and ridiculous 10,000 Days artwork.

[mcbpete]

The favourite case design album that I own is The Hafler Trio's Exactly As I Say album. It's absolutely absurd: http://www.hardformat.org/?p=84

Containing 2xCD in booklet wrapped in Catfish skin, DVD, Lava wrapped in cloth, signed print, some herbs, and 'some negative ions from a certain window' (?!), all in a big box.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

In total agreement with you there - whereas the front cover looks a bit ugly on the standard CD issue, it looks absolutely magnificent on the vinyl-book the box edition comes in.  The book of extra artwork's lovely stuff as well.  I still think I prefer the artwork on Amnesiac (or at least the special-edition library book version I have) and Hail To The Thief, but the box presents the In Rainbows design in a much better light (and has extra songs, which is always nice!).

I think the Amnesiac era artwork is the most cohesive of Radiohead's albums. The themes of the artwork - The weeping Minataur in the Labyrinth, labyrinthine Libraries, burning books and Fire generally - all gel together perfectly and capture the exact atmosphere of the music.

[scarecrow]

i really love the pop-art, fold-out edition of Costello's Armed Forces:

[purlieu]

Anyone seen a burgopak cased CD?  The only two I've come across are The Isness by FSOL/Amorphous Androgynous, and a Placebo one.  It's a cardboard box, you slide the cd tray out one side and the booklet (or second CD) pops out the other side.  A little like this:
[youtube=425,350]gm9_WUxngWQ[/youtube]

[boki]

Anyone seen a burgopak cased CD?

Yeah.

[Lord Mandrake]

Where cd sleeves are concerned I think the real trend setters for this in the u.k were Mo Wax in the early nineties, they became increasingly complex - an Attica blues cd I have comes in a kind of origami puzzle.. also Massive Attack's "Protection" cd which came in corregated, rough cardboard.. Shame I don't have a scanner or I'd show off my A man called Adam "Bread, love & dreams" cd, it has a pull tab which reveals a ladies arse..

[DocDaneeka]

In terms of great case designs, I've got to mention Friend or Foe by Menomena, where the insert's had several holes cut in it so that if you rotate the CD, you can alter the cover slightly (probably best to check out the pictures at http://sleevage.com/menomena-friend-and-foe/ to see what I mean), which is pretty damn snazzy.

Ooh Craig Thompson Artwork, nice!

[purlieu]

Yeah.

Ah, I didn't read that properly, I thought you just meant you slid an inner case out on its own (I shouldn't skim so much before asking bold questions).

[CaledonianGonzo]

of Montreal

For the release of Of Montreal's forthcoming Skeletal Lamping album, Polyvinyl will simultaneously bring out the set in seven different formats, several of which are all kinds of crazy fun.

Sure, there's a CD, and an 180 gram double-vinyl set, as you'd probably expect. But you can also cop Skeletal Lamping in the form of a t-shirt, a button set, a tote bag, a mess of wall decals, and, wildest of all, a paper lantern

[Anon]

Damn, was about to post that myself, but yes, this is one of the coolest ideas for album packaging I've ever heard.  Just got to decide which one to get now (although the t-shirt and the vinyl with the fold-out horse are both looking especially tasty...)!

[alan nagsworth]

Wicked ! I want the paper lantern. Are there pics anywhere?

[Duckula]

Why won't they let me pre-order it now. I think I'll go for the t-shirt.

[Jack Skellington]

I can't remember who it was but I remember Nicky Wire talking about a band whos record cases were wrapped in sandpaper and would scratch the other records nearby in protest. I thought that was brilliant.

[Delete Delete Delete]

I can't remember who it was but I remember Nicky Wire talking about a band whos record cases were wrapped in sandpaper and would scratch the other records nearby in protest. I thought that was brilliant.

That would be Durutti Column - Return of the Durutti Column



Stuck onto the record by hand by members of Joy Division no less.

[buttgammon]

Mostly by Ian Curtis apparently, because they were doing it while watching a porn film to keep them occupied, but the others got their hands sticky with materials other than glue.

[trotsky assortment]

Too much information!  I didn't want to know that about Peter Hook.  Urgh.

[Lee Van Cleef]

I have to say that I really like the limited version of Merzbow's "Metamorphosim" I've got that comes in a Marble Case.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Too much information!  I didn't want to know that about Peter Hook.  Urgh.

The fact that he's a fairly neanderthal type surprises you?