"The Zombies Greatest Hits" SACD

LOL! Angel...As usual, you're on the money...

 

Very true, Angel! Another cover that's driven me nutz for years is that 'Sgt. Pepper' one. What a crock of ****! It doesn't even look like the Beatles and why the heck did they let all of their roadies & accountants crowd around them like that?!

Todd

 

With all due respect Angel, people here want the larger music buying public to be attracted to Mr. Blonstein's stuff, just like he wants. We want him to succeed in a big way, right? The consensus (at least those who've posted) is that people generally don't like the old or the new artwork. That's not a personal cut, just some market feedback.

The basic artwork elements wouldn't change with each & every release, so this is just template fiddling using an existing release. I like your idea though. Someone should approach him with some examples, and it could lead to bigger things... You never know!

 

I thought the covers were going to be changed starting January 2003.
BC

 

Maybe there should be a poll to validate this statement. I'd like to think artwork would not be a motivating factor for buying these releases.
Aaron

 

Unfortunately, unattractive artwork is a motivating factor for NOT buying these releases. Not for me, but for the Hoffman-unaware masses.
BC

 

First of all, I don't think anyone here was under the assumption that the "artwork" I've been toying with was actually going to be used by AF for the SACD. It's just something to see what else can be done. Besides, companies have been known to change artwork after initial pressings, have they not? It's not really that uncommon...

I'm not sure there's any need to create artwork for the upcoming titles - obviously the general idea can be seen from the Zombies cover. It just happens that doing a different Zombies cover is what interested *me*. Heck, even if I knew what titles were forthcoming, I don't know what photos/artwork were planned for use.

 

Exactly. Someone who doesn't know who Steve Hoffman is might come across it and say "man, that looks cheap, I think I'll go with one of these other CDs that looks nicer." Trust me, I've done it before!

Besides, who doesn't want nice artwork to go along with their good sounding CDs?

 

Anyone can post the artwork... thanks!

Sorry... I've found the artwork on Acoustic Sounds' homepage... sorry, it looks really cheap!!!

 

I agree that artwork matters in getting Steve's fine work out to the public. So I'm all for more effective artwork, which Luke's experiments are trying to achieve. I don' t see either futility or insult here, just experiments and honest opinion. Constructive, too, in that instead of just chiming in with "yeah, that's crap," Luke actually put his vision where his words were and tried to come up with something better. And as he said, the Zombies cover interested him. I'm glad it did.

The latest version? Though the fan in me likes the Columbia logo "arrow experiment," I do think the silver top looks sleeker and would probably be more attractive to the general public. OTOH, I don't like the smaller fonts. The featured song titles are lost, and that's a problem with a band like the Zombies that's known more for a few hits than for their work as a band.

YMMV!

 

Indeed. I figured rather than just complain about what's there now, I'd put my computer where my mouth is and try and see what I could come up with.

I still like the arrow idea, but it just didn't seem to be working out how I wanted it to. That's not to say it couldn't, but for now I do prefer the silver/gradient look...

Suggestion noted. I had even thought of doing something like the Please Please Me cover (with Love Me Do and 12 other songs), but I wasn't sure how I wanted to do that...

 

I'm not so sure I agree with that. I can see someone not buying a Cannibal Corpse CD because it has a disgusting cover. I don't think this CD illicits that reaction at all. But we can disagree

Sure, that "might" happen, do you think this is how music buyers choose their CD's? Sure, Britney and Christina wear slinky things to attact teenage boys, but I have to think that Audio Fidelity is not targeting this minute segment that makes decisions solely based on artwork. When it comes right down to it, I think price or content would still be more of a deciding factor than artwork.
Aaron

 

If it weren't for wanting to attract the larger buying public, AF would just have gone with full size original artwork on the outside. DCC did the same thing - they prettied up their releases with slipcases, which you have to admit is part of the charm. AF is trying to get people to bite, which is cool. I hope they do, and I hope that leads to 1400 more members here..

We all admire Steve here, but many in the larger public don't even know what a mastering engineer does. Eye candy helps. Eventually, word of mouth will help.

True that price is a big factor, but the list is very attractive on these discs.

 

Great work, Luke, as usual.
I wish I were as confident as some of my fellow Forum members that improved artwork would matter. It might help, but what's really needed is for this stuff to be available to the general public, as the Abkco Stones redos were....
According to my brother and a few other store managers in the area, a curious thing is happening: people are bringing in some of those remasters for store credit or cash, which absolutely baffles me since the lowest price I saw for these was $13.88 at WalMart, and that was just the first week, after that the price was upped a buck....then again, after 1 came out, people started bringing in their red and blue discs, which cost a lot more, and got a fraction of that back....point being, a lot of folks are treating the Stones redos as if they were just that and nothing more, and the SACD aspect is apparently meaningless to them. Whether that's because the discs don't have SACD plastered all over the cover, or because of perceived inferior sound quality, or the general packaging, I've no idea....
But it does seem to me the hybrid capacity is the biggest selling point these will ever have, given the nature of the average consumer. How something 'looks' might matter, but you could put anything on an Eminem album cover and millions of kids would buy it...so packaging doesn't always matter.
But what you did looks really, really cool...and Angel does have a good point: make sure somebody important sees it, just for the hell of it. Can't hurt, and you never know...

ED

 

I see your point but kind of disagree. It depends on the shopper. Some people are very attracted to packaging and others are more into price or content (content I always think should be A-#1). We wouldn't have the saying "Don't judge a book by its cover" if this wasn't a real life situation. Also, there would be a lot of visual artists roaming the streets looking for buildings to paint on because nobody loves them anymore in the music biz. I think it would only serve a stronger justice to a product to have a proper balance of all 3 (Content/Artwork/Price).

Also, I totally got the creative spirit of Luke's art ideas. As he said for himself, he was just using the Zombies CD as an example to express his opinions (which was very well done). I'm very sure it's quite clear that the last thing most of would want to do is insult or hurt the feelings of anyone involved in Audio Fidelity. Again, we're just giving honest feedback because we want them to kick-butt. I'm sure they would want honesty in our communitee rather than "yesing". At the end of the day, it's their call with whatever they will or will not do...

Todd

 

These things are the very opposite of "eye candy", more like "eye clutter".
This type of packaging takes away the possibility of originality in art in favor of a cookie cutter look. There is no reason to re-invent the wheel here. Kind of reminds me of Columbia's big gold borders on their early SQ LPs. Boy, that really caused them to fly off the shelves.

 

Angel and Friends,

I took this post as both pragmatic and constructive! The design of covers may be a future business opportunity for Luke....a "cool" one at that!

Luke - go for it!

Bob

 

Re: A Different View

I like it, but it's missing the record label's trade mark. If they want to distinguish themselves that'll have to go on there somewhere that's easy to see.

 

... my .02cents

OK true. But then I imagine that the cover also complements the music, right? The label across the CD is for Cannibal Corpse which is a good indication of the type of music that is within that "disgusting" cover.

That "Zombies" cover is just plain tacky! Which is NOT an indication of what I'm sure is an SACD/CD with great music & SOUND quality.

So whats "funny" about Luke's suggestion??
Hell I wish they could re-print those covers and gives us something more understated.

(what gives with that art department??? Someone hire LUKE over there!! He seems to have a better vision for simple sophisticated art work that complements the quality of the music! -- Sorry nothing personal)

 

Having been in those situations before, I do think the art matters. Who here hasn't, for example (in their pre-Hoffman days, obviously) looked at an old MCA release (with plain checkerboard back) and a newer one and gone with the newer one because the old one looked kind of "cheap"?

As far as the Zombies go, while the disc is good in terms of content and price, it isn't out of the ballpark of other discs, either.

 

Re: Re: A Different View

I'm not so sure about that. MoFi didn't put their logo on the front of their LPs (or their CDs, for that matter), but their releases were still easily distinguishable. Heck, DCC didn't put their logo on the front of their slip cases, either...

 

Re: ... my .02cents

I'm not sure, I don't often listen to a record and think that a record is better because of the artwork. But that is just me.

It wouldn't stop me from buying it

I don't know if this is directed towards me, but I don't believe I ever called Luke's idea funny. I stated for me that this is much ado about nothing.
Aaron

 

Re: Re: ... my .02cents

Of course! that goes for me too. Heck look at the Beatles' "White Album", still one of my favorites.

What I meant is that an albums cover maybe does & maybe should, to a certain degree, complement its contents. (As a package!)

In my opinion, this was not just another re-packaging for yet another "Zombies - Greatest Hits". I believe that a lot of thought & hard work by Steve & even suggestions by this forum, contributed to the final product. But most, including me, seem to agree that the cover lacks!

Having said that, I will get this CD as soon as I can find it!

 

I don't think Luke sharing his graphic ideas is any different than when any of us disagree with track selections on a newly released "Best of..." CD and then post an alternate list. He just was trying to express his preference in taste with a few graphics. Thank goodness his choices weren't worse or else we would be suggesting he needs to spend a month in Rome studying art and perhaps have his eyesight checked again (and again). Creativity is about feeling free to share/express ideas and not fear of being called pointless. Hell, why should MFSL or DCC have bothered to release their own products if another label had mass quantity of them out in the market already??

Todd

 

I AGREE!

I've decided to give it a try also...to hell with the movie studios!!!!

(I hear the new lead has a torrid love scene with Katie)