Brit Box: The Packaging Literally Shines
November 20th, 2007 | 3:33 pm est |
Rhino may have been a little too cunning for their own britches on The Brit Box. The tracklisting is a scattered array of artists, largely due to a strange creative decision to construct themes from song title to song title (for example, “Insomniac,” “Sleep Well Tonight,” and “Sleeping In” all play back-to-back on disc two, followed by “Alright,” “Alright,” and “Stutter”). Cute, yes. But the result feels clumsy at times rather than a linear overview. It’s a good set, but it could have been oh so much better. For a project with such a huge scope, it seems like the concentration was focused in the wrong areas. Surely it was difficult enough to come up with a grouping for the wide array of artists that fit into the “Brit” genre without trying to get all fancy with the song order, and there was no need, as the art department had cute and fancy covered with the packaging. The case incorporates a rustic UK phone booth plastered with band stickers and actual flickering light bulbs inside to set the retro mood; the CDs themselves are designed to look like ashtrays, with the number of cigarette butts correlating with the disc number; and, to top it all off, it comes with a matching phone-booth keychain. It’s all extremely crafty, but of course, that’s no big surprise, considering that marketing has always been one of Rhino’s strong suits. Let’s look back at five of the most physically appealing other treats from their catalog.
1. Various Artists, Brain in a Box: The Science Fiction Collection. Decorated to look like a metal aquarium contraption with a hologram on three sides that gives the appearance of a floating brain inside. (Out of print)
2. Various Artists, The Heavy Metal Box. Shaped like an old Marshall amplifier head with the words “Heavy Metal” in white cursive on front, above a metal volume knob that turns to infinity.
3. Various Artists, One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost & Found. Inside a hat box are compact cosmetic/CD cases with mirror surfaces, perfect for adjusting makeup. Compact discs, get it?
4. Ray Charles, Pure Genius: The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959). Looks like a vintage portable record player, complete with a fake turntable the size of the CDs inside.
5. Tori Amos, A Piano: The Collection. Plastic piano keys are attached to the top of the box. Of course, the obvious question is, “Does it play?” No. But it looks like it could, and that’s pretty darn cool in itself.
The Beg, Scream and Shout box is actually way fancier and cooler than the Tori Amos box. Better music too.
Is it only me that thinks the Brit Box’s packaging looks pretty bad in comparasion to the other 5?
the tori amos one is the only one i’ve actually seen in reality, but the packaging nearly had me convinced to buy it without even checking who it was from.
As a music nerd and designer, I want to throw a couple of cents into the bucket on this topic. Personally, I think the best Rhino boxes (from a design standpoint) are the two designed by Peter Saville, the Joy Division set, Heart and Soul, and the New Order set, Retro. I could see how they were left off the list, because they don’t involve some sort of over-the-top die-molded plastic, and are instead designed in an understated, tasteful way. Not to dismiss the boxes mentioned in the blog, they are great too in their own idiom, but as far as Design with a capital D, I thought Saville & Co. deserved a mention.
In my opinion, nobody holds a candle to the Revenant Records boxed sets, particularly the weepingly beautiful Charlie Patton Boxed Set complete with authentic -esque old school LP slide-outs in a heavy booklet that almost smells like it came out of Granddad’s attic. One of my prized possessions.
I’d love to see Rhino (or anybody, for that matter) take a shot at topping the Goodbye, Babylon box set one day. That said, I think the shag carpet cover on the Have a Nice Decade box was a nice touch.
Yes, the girl group box is clever and cute looking, but what grown (straight) man would ever want to be seen walking out of a record start without a paper bag on it? I’ll admit its one of the best Rhino box sets i got, but the overly female packaging almost made me want to hide it away in a closet.
I’ll second the vote for Revenant. Thanks for the entertaining post, but I’d be hard pushed (with the exception perhaps of the Ray Charles) to describe any of these as ‘physically appealing’! I co-publishe a website called Hard Format (http://www.hardformat.org) devoted to contemporary music-related design - comments always welcome!
How is a red telephone box “rustic”?
rus·tic adj. – of, pertaining to, or living in the country, as distinguished from towns or cities; rural.
Oh, that’s right, it’s not rustic at all.
I will give another shout out to “Beg, Scream & Shout” as well as Rhino’s tin roof BBQ shack special edition ZZ Top set, which adorns the bookcase in my office.