A dreaded sunny day and I'll meet you at the cemetry gates

Ok ... Keats and Yeats are on your side indeed ... and we roll out the carpet for the invidious presence of the Limited and/or Deluxe edition ... yes I have chosen the word "invidious" wisely as I am wracked with feelings of resentment and envy as I lust after these beautifully prepared, individually numbered, cloth bound morsels of auditory and consummerist delights, desperately entombed in the purgatorial hell of extremely tight purse strings!

But this seems to be the format du jour for most artists these days trying to recoup lost revenue from the profit skimming downloading hounds of the modern world. And there is also the hope that remastered and rejuvenated, the material may gain new fans and interest. Oh and very very slightly, there is the joy of providing long suffering and loyal fans a bright burst of nostalgia and a glimmer of the excitement once exprienced when music could not be purchased without some form of physical exertion beyond the double click of a mouse.

So as I wait for the dollar to get better, my plain vanilla version of the Smith's remastered boxset languishes in my Wishlist along with the rest of the doldrum club members of which include the Beatles boxset, George Michael's Faith (CD/DVD) and other sundry retro rejects.

But I can't help wonder if I shouldn't bite the proverbial bullet and fork out £250 of my hard earned marbles and get the full Rhino experience:

This includes -
 
All eight albums on CD featuring mini-LP replica packaging with gatefold card wallets
All eight albums on 180-gram audiophile vinyl (five single LPs and three doubles)
Twenty-five 7-inches featuring all of the band’s singles with “specially reproduced rarities”
A 36-inch by 24-inch poster of all album and single cover artwork
“The Complete Picture” DVD featuring all of the band’s music videos
An eight-page, 12-inch booklet featuring “expanded liner notes”
Eight-inch by 12-inch art prints of each album cover’s artwork
Code to download band’s entire catalog as high-quality, 320kbps MP3 files

I'd probably end up listening to the albums as mp3 files ... but hey ho ... for all my teenage angst and trauma ... £250 ain't such a bad price for reliving the experience.

Meanwhile over in prog territory, Pink Floyd has their Immersion series of remasters.You can get the entire catalogue as a boxset, or shell out about $159 for the Immersion box set of The Dark Side of the Moon.

The Immersion Experience includes:


DISC 1 – CD 1:
The Dark Side Of The Moon digitally remastered by James Guthrie 2011
DISC 2 – CD 2:
The Dark Side Of The Moon performed live at Wembley in 1974 (2011 Mix and previously unreleased)
DISC 3 – DVD 1, ALL AUDIO:

• - The Dark Side Of The Moon, James Guthrie 2003 5.1 Surround Mix (previously released only on SACD) in standard resolution audio at 448 kbps and 640kbps
• - The Dark Side Of The Moon, Quad Mix (engineer Alan Parsons, previously released only on vinyl LP/8 track tape in 1973) in standard resolution audio at 448 kbps and 640kbps
• - The Dark Side Of The Moon, PCM Stereo mix (as per disc 1)

DISC 4 – DVD 2, ALL AUDIO VISUAL:
Live In Brighton 1972:

• Careful With That Axe, Eugene (previously unreleased on DVD)
• Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (previously unreleased on DVD)

The Dark Side Of The Moon, 2003 documentary (25 min EPK)
Concert Screen Films (60 min total):

• British Tour 1973
• French Tour 1974
• North American Tour 1975

Screen films play in stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound
DISC 5 – BLURAY, AUDIO+AUDIO VISUAL
-AUDIO: The Dark Side Of The Moon, James Guthrie 2003 5.1 Surround Mix (previously released only on SACD) in highest resolution audio at 96kHz / 24-bit
- AUDIO: The Dark Side O The Moon original stereo mix (1973) 96kHz / 24-bit
-AUDIO VISUAL: Live In Brighton 1972:

• Careful With That Axe, Eugene (previously unreleased on DVD/BluRay)
• Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (previously unreleased)

-AUDIO VISUAL: The Dark Side Of The Moon, 2003 documentary (EPK)
-AUDIO VISUAL: Concert Screen Films (5.1 Surround Mix 48kHz / 24-bit):

• British Tour 1973
• French Tour 1974
• North American Tour 1975

-AUDIO VISUAL: Concert Screen Films (High Resolution Stereo Mix 48kHz / 24-bit):

• British Tour 1973
• French Tour 1974
• North American Tour 1975

DISC 6 – CD3:

• -The Dark Side Of The Moon Alan Parsons 1972 Original Album Mix (previously unreleased)
• - The Hard Way (from ‘Household Objects’ project)
• - Us And Them, Richard Wright Demo (previously unreleased)
• - The Travel Sequence, live from Brighton June 1972 (previously unreleased)
• - The Mortality Sequence, live from Brighton June 1972 (previously unreleased)
• - Any Colour You Like, live from Brighton June 1972 (previously unreleased)
• - The Travel Sequence, studio recording 1972 (previously unreleased)
• - Money, Roger Waters’ demo (previously unreleased)

PLUS

• 40 page 27cm x 27cm booklet designed by Storm Thorgerson
• Exclusive photo book edited by Jill Furmanovsky
• 27cm x27cm Exclusive Storm Thorgerson Art Print
• 5 x Collectors’ Cards featuring art and comments by Storm Thorgerson
• Replica of The Dark Side Of The Moon Tour Ticket
• Replica of The Dark Side Of The Moon Backstage Pass
• Scarf
• 3 x Black marbles
• 9 x Coasters (unique to this box) featuring early Storm Thorgerson design sketches
• 4-8 page credits booklet

(thank you superdeluxeedition)

If you are a novice to Pink Floyd and are wondering why this band was so influential, then this is the album to start with. I'd even suggest that no serious music collection could do without this.

And then there is Bjork's Biophilia.

 
Weighing in at about £500 and limited to a total number of 200, this was never going to be for the fainthearted. And I believe what makes this extra special is that initial copies of the actual album are now different to the general release as bjork has since tweaked some of the versions of tracks on the initial release.

So what does the Ultimate edition specifically entail? Well, if you were one of the lucky 200, you have in your hot little hands the following:

strictly limited to 200 copies with individual numbered certificates, the ultimate art edition will be made to order and fabricated only once.

lacquered and silkscreened oak hinged lid case containing the biophilia manual, along with 10 chrome-plated tuning forks, silkscreened on one face in 10 different colors, stamped at the back, and presented in a flocked tray. each fork adjusted to the tone of each of the tracks from biophiia and covering a complete octave in a non-conventional scale. each case comes with an individual numbered certificate detailing the use of tuning forks.

the ultimate art edition contains the biophilia manual.
the manual presents the music of biophilia in a 48-page, full-color, hardbound, cloth-covered, and thread-sewn book, tipped on lenticular panel to the front cover, with foil-blocked spine and back cover; the music, on cd, is housed in black uncoated board wallets. the manual is removed from the case by means of a ribbon pull

I think I will be needing some counselling now ...