Blondie 1974-1982: Against the Odds

I didn't miss your point at all, I just didn't want to dwell on that "value for money" line of thinking. Whoever designed these sets clearly had a plan. And I like how different these sets are looking. That's really nice!

 

I'm finding it really frustrating waiting until the end of the month, I want my box sets now.

 

The graphic novel, Against All Odds is now up for preorder with full details (oh, and the “exclusive vinyl” is a 12” of Sunday Girl).


Summary
Combining an imaginative take on an oral history of the band, interspersed with artistic interpretations of 10 songs from their catalog, BLONDIE: AGAINST THE ODDS captures the friction of NYC as the band fought their way to prominence, as well as the power and energy contained within the songs that fueled their rise to legendary status.

Bundle Options
STANDARD EDITION (SOFTCOVER) INCLUDES:
• Softcover graphic novel with cover by Amanda Conner and Paul Mounts [180 pages]

STANDARD EDITION (HARDCOVER) INCLUDES:
• Hardcover graphic novel with cover by Amanda Conner and Paul Mounts [180 pages]

DELUXE EDITION (OVERSIZED SILVER INK HARDCOVER, LIMITED EDITION OF 3,000) INCLUDES:
• Oversized Hardcover Deluxe Edition graphic novel with limited edition silver ink cover by Amanda Conner [180 pages]
• Graphic Novel Slipcase designed by Jason "Stuntkid” Levesque
• Exclusive Blondie “Sunday Girl” 12" Vinyl featuring exclusive art by Jesse Philips
• (3) exclusive Blondie song-inspired art prints

PLATINUM EDITION (OVERSIZED SILVER INK HARDCOVER, LIMITED EDITION OF 100) INCLUDES:
• Oversized Hardcover Deluxe Edition graphic novel with limited edition silver ink cover by Amanda Conner [180 pages]
• Graphic Novel Slipcase designed by Jason "Stuntkid" Levesque

• Exclusive Blondie “Sunday Girl” 12" Vinyl featuring exclusive art by Jesse Philips
• The Blondie 4-LP “Black” edition with all 52 bonus tracks nestled against a 128-page hard cover book and tucked inside a foil-wrapped slipcase
• Set of (10) exclusive Blondie song-inspired art prints
• Set of (10) exclusive Blondie song-inspired postcards

 

The 8 CD box is essentially a 12" x 12" book inside a rigid outer slipcase, the CD's are slotted into the front opening and rear opening of the book.

 

Does anyone know who pressed this set?

 

Hopefully the UK boxes will get sent out a day early as there’s a Royal Mail strike on 26 August which means no post delivered and no post sorted.

 

Don't forget to mention that they at least are housed in paper sleeves.

Still undecided. The 8 CD box? The 4 LP box? Definitely not the 10 LP version. Is it ideal to have the period rarities tacked onto the corresponding studio albums? Is it ideal to own those rarities on vinyl? Do I need a new remastering of the albums? Will it be worthwhile? Will any of these sets sell out quicker than others? Any input is extremely welcome! Because I'm foking undecided....

On a side note I streamed "The Hunter" today, first listen since easily two decades and was surprised how much I enjoyed it.

 

Unless no other option is available, no.

I don't do vinyl, so for me that's an emphatic no.

I'm satisfied with my late 80s/1994 versions, personally. If you aren't...

But, you know....that's just me.

 

Happy about any input, thank you!

Apart from a clear Dutch "Parallel Lines", I have US originals for the albums before 1982 so I'm mainly after the rarities and book. Maybe that answers my own question?

 

I’m mainly after the remastered studio album CDs and the book. I’m not a huge Blondie fan, so the bonus discs don’t really interest me.

One thing I dislike about the boxset already is the way the CDs are packaged. Those thin cardboard sleeves are an absolute disgrace. They couldn’t have made less effort if they’d tried. Not even an inner sleeve to protect the discs!

 

You're correct, each CD is indeed housed in a card (replica) picture cover and slotted into the front and rear of the book.

I purchased my copy from a UK Ebay seller for £80. You could break the cost down of this box and justify your outlay like..£10 for each CD and a free (very very good quality book). Or maybe £20 for a very very good quality book plus 8 CD's for £60. I'm not wealthy by any means and I certainly didn't need this box set (my 10 x red vinyl box is preordered) and I own all the original vinyl albums and singles, but I am very pleased I bought this. My rather humble hifi is, I suspect, not as revealing as some people's on this forum, the discs all sound fantastic to me but there will probably be some groans from some buyers with superb systems that say the discs are too loud, too hot, over compressed etc.

I own some CD's that sound awful, I have around 1000 + so I can only say what sounds good to my ears on my system.

If you're a Blondie fan and £80ish is a comfortable spend, I can't see how anybody would be disappointed considering that you get 8 discs, some with very rare and unreleased material and a superb book.

No affiliations or conections here, just a regular bloke giving it straight.

Hope this helps at least one person to go for it.

 

Excellent, since you have the 8CD set already, can you give me some details about the book? It seems like each book is going to have a different layout based on the size and content. That means 4 different books involved in this. I'm guessing the content of the Super Deluxe and the 8 CD set will have all of the same info, but curious how it is laid out in the 8CD version.

Meaning, between the 8CD and 10LP set, they will both have the same content. Same songs on each. Irritatingly enough though, the LP set is a smaller size than the CD set's book. Although, I am seeing the LP set is 144 pages and the CD set is 128 pages. Is it just because of reformatting it for size? Or is the content completely rearranged? I think all of the track comments/info is arranged as the same as the order of the LPs. The CD set seems like it will be shuffled around since most of the bonus tracks have been appended to the CDs themselves, instead of being on separate ones like the LP set. Basically, 10LPs, 1 EP and a seven inch single, versus 8 CDs. I would think the book layout for each will reflect that.

Anyway, any coments on the book layout in your set? I would really appreciate it. I am also very curious what is in the 4LP book! I believe that it is only 112 pages, and since it does not include the albums proper, plus it's missing 5 of the bonus tracks and ordered differently, I am thinking those details/comments are not in it. Nor are the details for the 5 missing bonus tracks. Anyone else know yet? Thanks!

 

I haven't read the book cover to cover yet, yes the 8CD book is a 12"×12" and the 10 x vinyl box comes with a smaller book, I'd have to assume the content of both books to be identical since the 8 x CD set and the 10 x vinyl set contain the same number of tracks, the page count difference can only be because this is a one book set and as you're aware different in size by some margin.

Essentially, each album track on each album, in order of release, the book has comments and memories of how each track was written, recorded etc by each member of the band.

Remember that this book includes the discography images from around the world, whereas the 10 x vinyl book does not, that set has it's own 7" book which houses the 7" vinyl with discography details.

As for the other formats available, the books would, I assume, reflect the tracks on those respectively rather than giving information not related to the actual disc content.

I hope this makes some sense and perhaps helps somewhat.

 

There is a separate 3 CDs Set that will be available, which contains all of the Bonus Songs.

 

Aren't there only three books since the one in the 8 CD variant should be identical to the one in the 4 LP rarity set? Minus the slotted in CDs?

I'm going to wait for the first reviews of the remastered album CDs before I'm deciding if I'm getting the 4 or 8 disc variant.

 

Nope. As stated above, the 8CD set is 128 pages, and the 4LP set is only 112 pages. I doubt that they have the track by track commentary for the tracks that are not on the 4LP set. It is probably arranged to reflect the 4 LP track list only. Just guessing since I haven't seen it yet, but that's likely. Definitely different in some way.

 

So the cd set has the tracks arranged in LP (CD) order of release. Are the bonus tracks for each CD added to the end of each release then? With the last 2 CDs having having the rest in order?

I would also think that with the discography added to the CD set, that other content is lost? With a much smaller page count, it seems like something would be missing, especially if they added the 120 pages worth of the discography book. I know the discograpjy book is only slightly bigger than a 7-inch, but 120 pages worth is a lot to add. Maybe it's only select items?

I'm also still thinking that the LP set will have the book arranged in order to reflect the track list per each album in the box. Just have to wait and find out, hopefully pretty soon. Thanks for the reply!

 

I know it seems petty to reject a new boxset because the CDs are packaged in thin cardboard sleeves, but this really sticks in my craw! When I saw Paul from SDE unboxing them, they looked just like the CD-Roms or CDs newspapers would occasionally give away in the 90s.

If they’d even replicated the inner sleeves from the original albums it would have been something…

My only hope is that one day these 6 albums will be issued separately (provided the mastering is as good as people are initially saying, of course) and packaged better.

This is the issue I have with many boxsets. There’s always something wrong with them. Always compromises that you have to endure.

 

Yes the lack of inner sleeves chaps my hide too. I bought a heap of those Japanese SHM inners (like the ones that came with the Elton John reissues from a couple of years ago). I keep them for boxsets like this where CDs are enclosed in thin paper card. There really is no excuse when you are paying such a high price for a boxset.

I’ve preordered the CD boxset and am very excited about it, but at $250 AUD I think some form of protection in those flimsy card sleeves would have been nice!

 

The crappy CD packaging was enough to make me cancel my preorder. I know record companies don’t care about CDs anymore, but they don’t have to make it so obvious.

 

I bet they reissue the albums separately soon as well, on colored vinyl like the CD labels.
I might have already said so some pages back

 

I am eager to see more detailed tracklisting... Is Call Me the long or short mix? Is the original album version of Heart of Glass included? How is the sound? I'm happy they putting out the first six albums again but like others here I wish they had been packaged with more love.

 

Thanks for clearing that up. Makes sense, doesn't it?

 

Yeah, it does suck. But then again: Aren't the vinyl versions housed in cardboard inners without polyliners as well?

I definitely want a track-by-track for the albums. Maybe I should wait for the big sets price to drop? Because while I can imagine the 4 and 8 disc variants selling out sooner or later I'm having a hard time imagining that a 300+ $/£/€ box by Blondie will be an especially fast moving item in 2022. I could be wrong though.

Urgh... the thought just occurred that the big box includes a small(er) book. Fok, gotta bite a bullet - or two - with that set. Probably I simply should buy the one that will sell out first. But: Which one will that be? Probably the 8 silver disc set. It's probably the perfect format for an archival collection like this.

 

Yes, but at least the vinyl versions are housed in replica inner sleeves. The CDs got nothing!

Looking at all the variants, it would appear there’s issues with the lot of them. I’m not a vinyl man, so I wouldn’t have bought these for a start. Still, I suppose I’ve saved £90 on the CD boxset. Not to be sniffed at in these hard times!