Hardformat

Artist: Radiohead
Title: Amnesiac
Label: Parlophone
Year: 2001
Designer: Book by Stanley Donwood and Tchocky
Type of music: Experimental rock
Notes: Lovely. I particularly like the library card and the command that “this book is to be hidden.” My only criticism, as with the mum book, is that I’m puzzled by the choice of glossy paper stock for the image pages. Something thinner, matt and textured would have registered the passing of time more pleasingly and would have been more appropriate for this imaginative project.

There’s something about Metallica’s employment of a branding company that’s amusing and slightfuly awful. The article’s well worth a read. The CD packaging design itself is fun and delightfully cheesy which is entirely appropriate to the genre. I almost bought a copy yesterday, but couldn’t quite bring myself to…

Link: Branding Metallica

Artist: Various
Title: Money Will Ruin Everything
Label: Rune Grammofon
Year: 2003
Designer: Kim Hiorthoy
Type of music: Norwegian
Notes: Subtitled “some 30 releases on Rune Grammofon”, this appears to be the 32nd release on the label… one of the first pages states “This book is a record cover”… I love the little shamrock device and the white hairline on the CD sleeves. Money Will Ruin Everything is a tangential, playful delight. I wish Kim Hiorthoy published posters/prints, I’d happily hang his work on my walls. Oh and that’s a strange looking cat!

Innerpartysystem’s new single has been pressed not on vinyl but on 100% edible chocolate. However tempting an “it tastes better than it sounds” review might be, it’s the latest in the music industry’s weird and wonderful line of gimmick formats.

Don’t judge a book by its cover, my mum would often say. But when it comes to music, I love the covers just as much as the music. And I love the formats – increasingly becoming relics of a bygone era – that music has been released on even more.

What’s the sweetest format? | Music | guardian.co.uk