Awkwardly packaged LPs

I was just rearranging part of my record collection and I came across a few frustrating items.

The worst offender that I've had would be David Gilmour's On An Island. Perhaps the largest single LP cover I've ever seen and impossible to fit anywhere. (Unfortunately I sold my copy a while back because there was a small tear in the cover and I wanted to get a better one. This was before the prices went through the roof - $200ish at the moment it seems.)

Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue triple LP reissue has always irrated me as the cover is sideways and opens the wrong direction to file properly! (It's also too fat to fit nicely into an outer sleeve.)

Any other culprits?

 

Promo copies of Little Steven's Men Without Women (1982) came in an oversize cover-like folder that held not only the actual LP, but a press release, a poster, copies of advance reviews, photos, etc. The folder/cover was about a half-inch taller and wider than a normal cover, which meant (1) it wouldn't fit into a protective sleeve and (2) it stuck out above and in front of all other albums on a shelf, resulting in it constantly getting bumped and bent! (In the photo below, the folder/cover is at lower left.)

 

Completely agree with you on the Gilmour LP. I put it back very carefully after I've played it, but there's no protective sleeve to be found for it.
On the subject of "sideways" covers, Zappa's Absolutely Free and Trip Into The Body by Johan Timman have to be put sideways to properly read the covers.
(Incidentally, Timman's record (his only one) is one of the best electronic records EVER, but that's something for another thread.)

 

Aphex Twin's "Drukqs", a four LP set needlessly packaged in a box that's 12" tall by 17" long (per Wikipedia). The outer 5" of the cover of my copy are gently fading in sunlight...

 

Bags Unlimited sells boxset sized outer sleeves. They're good for larger LP covers also. I have an oversized binder that holds a 12 LP set. One of these bags over one end and a trimmed down second one over the other end keeps the cover well protected. The records are in seperate generic covers.

 

Undoubtedly the most widely sold awkward album cover was Sticky Fingers with the zipper. It chewed up whatever album you had it next to in your collection.

There was also this specialty packaging of the Talking Heads album, Speaking In Tongues. It is impossible to store on a normal shelf and comes apart at the drop of a hat. Robert Rauschenberg may have won a Grammy for this packaging but it's a bad design. 50,000 were sold.

 

I sold that partly because I rarely played it and partly because it annoyed me so much. The box has a folded bit of card to fill out the inner 5" of the box to stop the records sliding right inside, but I remember it not being all that effective. It's also two records at 33rpm and two at 45 isn't it?

 

Bill Evans - Verve Complete - rustyyyy!

 

When I saw this thread title, I immediately thought of the Talking Heads LP that ggergm noted above! I actually sold mine on eBay because I was tired of not being able to file it properly with my other LPs.

Another one is Alice Cooper's Muscle of Love in that cardboard box. Sure it's close to LP sized, but it does take up a lot of extra space and looks odd on the shelf.

 

I have my copy on the same shelf as my box sets, which is separate from the rest of the collection.

 

I stored this and "Muscle Of Love" in clear plastic bags next to my box sets. Another contender is "The Return Of The Durutti Column" by The Durutti Column. The first pressing came in a sandpaper sleeve that damages the other covers and reportedly got glued together by label mates Joy Division. I store this and "Sticky Fingers" seperate from my record stack

Then there is PIL's "Metal Box"....

 

Worst offender would have to be :Zoviet*France:. Their albums were packaged in metallic foil, roofing tiles, cement blocks, tissue paper, balsa wood and anything else they could find that would be inconvient for filing and esxpensive for exporting to othe countries.

I've got a Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock & Merzbow & Due Process LP that has a plastic fork and some weird kind of plastic handle (?) attached to the cover that make it a nuisance to file.

 

Neil Young ~ Journey Through the Past. You open the gatefold and the LPs fall on the floor.

 

The All Things Must Pass double with the 2000 remixes is longer and taller than all the other CDs in its row, and has nothing on the side to identify the contents.

 

It is (Aphex Twin's "Drukqs", for those who've just joined us) but it's been so long since I last played it I'd totally forgotten this.

 

Anything top loader I seem to need three hands!

 

The Slowhand 35th Anniversary box.

 

With any awkward sized LP jackets I have, the disc gets transferred to a generic LP jacket. This goes for any out-sized LP boxed sets, too:

http://www.Sleevecityusa.com/white-die-cut-lp-jacket-with-center-hole-p/3jacwt.htm

Later, Chris

 

Joe Walsh's "The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get." The packaging is almost as confusing as the title.

 

The UK edition of Costello's Armed Forces is the first that comes to mind.
It has these four interlocking flaps on the front that are supposed to be folded onto each other.

PILs 'Metal Box' is another.

While not an LP the Marshall Crenshaw CD, 'Miracle Of Science' doesn't really have a front cover insert. it has this weird puzzle insert that only partially fits in the cover. Though I'm not explaining well.

I have a 12" Beatles promo. That while the cover is dark blue with text, and LOOKS like an LP jacket that is made out of cardboard.
It is actually really, really thin paper. Flimsier than a 45 picture sleeve.

John Lennon's Wall & Bridges, with the flaps, which is similar to a Mama's & Papas record I have. Where you can change the faces by moving the flaps.

 

Not an LP, but Spinal Tap's "Back From The Dead" (whose packaging was nominated for a Grammy) is HELL to deal with.

For one thing... the fold-out stage and band stand-ups work ONCE before they become too weak to stand, and you have to practically unfold the entire thing to get the CD's out.

 

Incidentally, is that thin dark-blue Beatles promo the UK "Rarities"? I seem to remember hearing that was originally packaged in a paper sleeve (when part of "The Beatles Collection") then sold separately in a lookalike cardboard jacket.

 

The Slowhand 35th Anniversary. I have never seen anything more stupidly packaged.

 

Muscle Of Love is my personal pet peeve for bad packaging. It's just a major PITA!

 

I remember having a Janis Ian album that seemed to unfold in like 6 different ways, although I can't remember which one it was.