well, what can i say? welcome to what must be close to post number one thousand on the subject of the apparently designed to disappoint Manic Street Preachers 'complete' Singles Box set. as someone going by the name of dfua has got it, opened it and shared their findings, i thought it only fair and appropriate to repeat them here. well, some of you have followed my bemusement at the tale of this sorry set, so it would be unfair not to (hopefully) end the tale of it with an actual view of someone that has it.
on the plus side, to try and start with something positive, dfua reports that the vinyls are "nice" and that the outer box is "OK".
sorry, were you looking here after the picture of the single that should have been released for some more positives? they do not, alas, exist to be reported on. it's all poor returns on a high price from here on out.
i'd like to think i have pretty much covered the travesty of the tracklisting, with somewhere in the region of a third of the b-sides from the singles being omitted from this 'complete' singles set. that translates as somewhere around 80 - 100 songs, by the way. if that wasn't bad enough, they have it seems gone out of their way to do as much damage to the appearance of the singles as they can. in the words of dfua :
Feels quite cheap. The CD cases all have the same back with the diagonal stipe just different colours. The CDs themselves are vinyl style but don't even say what they are, they just have the same colour and stripe as the back of the cases as the label.
oh, that is shocking, even by Sony's usual standards of selling poor quality items to the consumers they hate. so gone, then, are the excellent artwork and design from the back of the singles? the celebrated quotes from the world of art and literature that grace every Manics single? so much too for the "vinyl finish" they said each CD single would have, a bit pointless if there is no track information and just a big stripe across it!
Sony also made quite a fuss about this box including an "exclusive" compact vanity mirror and lipstick set. erm, yeah, big selling point that is for music.
in regards of the compact vanity mirror, the consumer review is this - the mirror is just tat, barely better than the kind of thing you'd find in a christmas cracker. not good then. it's also plain, with no mention of it being a special 'Manic Street Preachers' compact vanity mirror.
the lipstick is no better. it's as exclusive as it is available to buy from this internet site, with LP121 - pillar box red being the reference number or style you want to buy if you want it without spending at least £165.00 on this box. again, no reference or mention of the Manics on this; apparently it is an item that Sony bought in bulk and just shoved in the box for the sake of it.
a final nail to make this box a coffin for the poor thing it is would be that the inside of the box looks like it is damaged, apparently - as if someone just shoved everything in with a degree of force. good luck putting everything back in, dfua!
i will not reveal the number, but the "limited edition number" on the copy dfua got was a three-figure one. that is an alarming amount of people who have bought this, then, and seem set for disappointment. i wouldn't be too surprised, however, if the first 100 or so sets were given away to magazines and the like as freebies in the hope of attracting reviews far better than they deserve. and any review which even hints at suggesting that it might not be all that a bad idea to invest a small fortune in this set is a better review than it deserves.
bravo, Sony. you have created a set that on one side rips off actual fans of the Manic Street Preachers with the lack of content, and on the other side you have delivered something that is likely to put people off bothering to buy any sort of special edition CD set with what one gets in return for the money.
once again, the 2 CD set or the 2 CD set with a "bonus" DVD (that you pay for, and i believe the quality of the DVD is not so great) of National Treasures appears excellent in terms of price and content. this horrid box does not.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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