The Special Edition

So I’m popping in to HMV after work to look for an album, and can’t help but notice all the special editions of albums that are on sale. It’s pretty typical these days for albums to be packaged in at least two different manners. It might be that one set comes with an additional DVD, although you need to be careful, since at the start of an album’s life, there aren’t typically all that many promo videos to give away. Or the album, might come in a larger pack with artwork, a booklet or some other wonder.
But sometimes it’s just stupid. Take the new Paul McCartney album. You can buy it in its normal packaging. Which is fine. And as we all now know, it’s available from branches of Starbucks as well as from download sites (although sadly for Sir Paul, the Starbucks sales don’t count towards the charts). But there’s a “deluxe packaging” set that comes with a second CD. That CD has some sort of “making of” piece of audio with Sir Paul talking us through the tracks. An interesting, and quite possibly worthwhile extra. It’s the other “extra” that you get with this CD that made my jaw drop in HMV. The CD – which was released just a couple of weeks ago, don’t forget – also comes with “3 Bonus Tracks, Previously Unreleased.”
Wha?
You mean these are three tracks that didn’t make the album – released on the same day – yet made the “deluxe packaging” set. How can anyone describe them as “Previously Unreleased?”
OK – so they might be McCartney back catalogue songs, but seriously…
However, the award for showing the most affront must surely go to the recent Bruce Springsteen releases. His last studio album was the excellent We Shall Overcome – The Seeger Sessions which actually came as a dualdisc. That is to say, it was packaged with a DVD (indeed I saw some packaging that came with a DVD and CD on the same disc.
But don’t buy that version, released in April last year. To tie in with his tour in the autumn of last year, the album was re-released as the Land Edition (same price at Amazon), which comes with three additional songs and an extra four videos on the DVD, an extended documentary, and extended booklet. That’s annoying for a completist isn’t it?
But wait, if you saw the tour, perhaps you’d like to relive it with the Live in Dublin version of the album just released. Although be careful. You may instead want to pick up the version that comes with a DVD.
There’s no word yet on whether or not this album will be re-released in a few months with a couple more tracks. Watch this space!
On a related note, as I wandered into HMV I noticed that their security barriers carried their regular adverts for a CD or DVD release. This week, it was Hot Fuzz which was released last week. Except I couldn’t help but notice that the first 5 in £15.95 was cutout and stuck ontop of something else. It couldn’t have been the 3 in £13.95 that they were charging last week could it? Why… yes it could.