Saturday, November 12, 2011

CLASSIC ALBUMS BOX ctd...

The new Classic Albums Collection box set has arrived.  Here's another picture to illustrate some of the interesting features.

First off, there's 11 discs, not 12 as some retailers have listed.

The individual albums are housed in good quality card sleeves.  If the original album was a gatefold, it's presented here in a gatefold.

The booklet is 28 pages with original album credits and snippets from the remaster booklets.   Very nice.

All of the discs are uniform black with logo and title.

So, on the surface, a nicely presented set.  A casual fan now has the opportunity to own ELO's main catalog for as little as $45.  I suppose that's the intent of this set.

Now for the nitpicky stuff:

I have mixed feelings on the white border of every card sleeve.

Given the Earth Wind & Fire example for this same series, I thought this would have been a good opportunity to include a short bonus CD of already released tracks that didn't make this round of remasters (ie remastered Hello My Old Friend, Mandalay, Buildings Have Eyes, A Matter Of Fact (both versions), maybe the edit to Evil Woman, Flashback tracks, etc...)

A lot of us had strong doubts Zoom was going to be included.  If Sony doesn't own it anymore, my guess is any future 're-packagaing' would probably come from Jeff and his yet to be revealed new endeavor.

One good thing about this box set, it's not cheaply made and there's more attention to detail than usual. But, I can't help but to imagine a real box set geared to the more dedicated ELO fan ala the recent Queen and Pink Floyd sets.

I have to admit, they made nothing new look new.

3 comments:

Jerry said...

Notice how the discs try to resemble the old labels, but Jet is long gone... The ELO logo tilts like the old Jet.

Robert said...

The packaging is kinda sparse. The booklet, although nothing new if you have all the remasters, is well done. For the price, it's a nice collection. I've been having fun listening to each disc in order. I'm on OOTB right now.

swarlock said...

Pass.