Saturday Deluxe / 10 October 2015
Super Deluxe Woes
I was all set to create an unboxing video this week that compared Paul McCartney‘s Tug of War deluxe versus the super deluxe, but unfortunately I got a message that my limited super deluxe – which was on the way from Amazon France – had been returned as ‘undeliverable’. Argh!
After some investigation, it seems the item was damaged in transit. Amazon were quick to give me a refund, but of course because this item was so limited (1000 worldwide) it was no longer available, and I couldn’t reorder it. To be fair, they have promised that if it comes back in to stock (seems unlikely) at a higher price I can order and they will refund the difference, so I guess I’ll keep an eye out. I was gutted initially, but on reflection I have saved €130 for the sake of an ‘acrylic slipcase’ and a few ‘hand numbered’ prints, so hey-ho. By the way there will still be a video, so stay tuned to SDE next week.
Read more about the Tug of War formats here.
Roger Waters drip-feeds The Wall
Roger Waters‘ The Wall Live tour is being issued soon, and this week the DVD and special two-blu-ray edition were announced. Then a few days later the three-LP and two-CD sets were also announced. Next week, a Super Deluxe Edition box set will be announced. You do wish they could tell you everything at the same time!
Read more the video and audio editions of Roger Waters The Wall.
New! SDE ChartWatch
Paul McCartney‘s Tug of War reissue enters the UK Physical Albums chart at number 30 this week (#47 in ‘normal’ album chart), with Pipes of Peace bringing up the rear at number 41. Sony’s former number one, the Paul Simon Ultimate Collection ‘best of’, is still doing strong business ahead of both of the new Macca reissues 26 weeks after it was released (it currently stands at no. 28).
In fact, ‘greatest hits’ tend to clog up the lower reaches of this physical chart (Elton John, Lionel Richie, Bon Jovi, Whitney Houston and James Taylor all have ‘best of’s in the top 70) reflecting the fact that the demographic that buy them are probably least the likely to download and the wide availability of such titles front-of-house at shops like HMV and also in supermarkets in the UK.
Duran Duran‘s Paper Gods is at no. 64 in the physical album chart down from 43 last week and after just five weeks is only a lowly 99 in the actual album charts which takes into account downloads etc. With no hit single and the band concentrating promotion in the US at the moment, it’s perhaps not too surprising.
a-ha‘s Cast in Steel is only a few places down from Duran Duran at number 66 which isn’t too bad, since it had much less online promotion and social media ‘presence’ (aka hype) than Paper Gods. And although it’s a double success for a-ha, with the Bill Inglot complied and mastered Definitive Singles Collection at no. 76 (incidentally, this now seems the de facto hits set ahead of Headline and Deadlines) it’s disappointing to note that the five-disc super deluxe edition of Hunting High and Low is nowhere to be found in the top 100 physical albums three weeks after it entered at number 52. Perhaps the timing was ill-advised with the new album out as well.
Having said that, it’s not unusual for box sets to drop like a stone, because the debut chart entry takes into account weeks and probably months of pre-orders. So David Bowie‘s Five Years set entered at no. 32 the week before last and is nowhere to be found in the top 100 physical albums chart this week.
The Garbage debut album reissue is a rather disappointing 78 in the physical chart and nowhere to be found in the ‘proper’ UK top 100. If they’d got their act together and released all formats on the same day, then this may have been different but at the time of writing only the underwhelming two-CD version is out. The double LP set isn’t due to be released for another three weeks (30 October) with the limited triple LP vinyl box looks like it’s going to be early December from what I understand!
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News
Paul,
I received my copy of the super duper deluxe edition from Amazon Italy. I was lucky enough to grab a copy before they ran out of supplies.
I’m very surprised that your copy was damaged enough for it to be returned. As well as Amazon Italy using their own big box to conceal the package, The ‘Tug of War’ edition came in it’s own cardboard box with a flip-over lid. On the side of the box there’s written ‘Tug of War’ in bold letters.
When you flid over the lid, there’s a foam layer protecting the contents. Everything is in perfect condition.
All the other McCartney deluxe editions I’ve purchased have had a cardboard tray rather than a box to protect the contents.
I received the super deluxe edition in the mail today. I ordered my copy from macca’s website. It was in pretty good shape. I have to say (on the outside) the packaging is nothing more than regular cardboard with a few titles thrown on it (paul, tug of war, etc.) but not that impressive. Perhaps under the cardboard is the nicer container. One small dent on the cardboard but not too bad. It was shipped in bubble plastic. Did someone say “Flowers in the Dirt” is next? I really enjoyed that one as it was Paul’s “return” to good solid album in my opinion.
I received the POP & TUW from Amazon Canada a week ago, after the SDE deal notice – thank you! They arrived in perfect conditions, thanks to the cardboard protection. I have actually kept them in that. And no extra charge for import YAY! I downloaded the high-res versions from Macca’s site without any problems. They sound great and like DaveM said POP is so more enjoyable that i remembered. The new remix of ‘Say Say Say’ is fantastic. The content of the box is well made and gives you a feeling of luxury and the book is well written (i’m a music journalist) So all’n’all really happy with it.
Th Garbage release is really mysterious to me. Why release so many versions at different dates and without the remixes on most of them. I ended up getting the high-res version from HD Tracks with all 62 tracks in glorious sound and that was perfect. Except two of the tracks, track 10 and track 40 don’t have any metadata so they don’t fit the rest of the album in my player/software, and i cannot do it myself, since the files are writing protected….oh well.
Thank you for the site Paul and all your fantastic work. It has brought back joy for me in music and seeking for it. Cheers Nimo
Thanks Nimo. I bought the Garbage 62-track SDE from Qobuz, but haven’t actually listened to it yet!
Did you have any problems with the meta data?
Yes, actually. Keep getting ‘file permission errors’ when converting from FLAC using Max. Might have to complain to Qobuz…
Hmmm i will write HD Tracks later today.
I’ll let you know what they say.
Ooh, now there’s only 999 copies left! Sorry to hear this – like you say, you saved a bunch of moneys; but it would have been nice to have a copy …
Tax issues aside, Amazon are not always truthful. A couple of years ago I orderded the Lee Hazelwood LHI super deluxe box set the day it went on sale on Amazon.co.uk for £101, about £65 less than it should have been selling for. Within a few days it was selling at £165. A couple of months later on the day it was released and the day I should have received it, I got an email from Amazon saying that it’s release was delayed by 5 weeks and the delivery date would now be after Christamas. I contacted Amazon and they said there was nothing they could do about it and they suggested that I should cancel my existing order and buy it from a Marketplace seller (for £65 more!). I didn’t cancel my order and the box set turned up a couple of days later. I still think Amazon were trying to pull a fast one after originally listing it at a ridiculousy low price.
P.S.
As an aside, here’s an article about box sets from the Guardian earlier this week:
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/oct/09/peak-box-set-how-dylan-inspired-barrel-scraping-of-the-most-cynical-kind
I went with Amazon.co.uk boringly as a Prime customer. Both POP and TOW SDs arrived on the day of release and were well packaged. Really enjoying them both (POP more than I expected). The remix of TOW is superb. The boxes and contents are really nice as well. As I have said elsewhere the coming soon only refers to Flowers in the Dirt…
Sorry to hear about the Macca box Paul ,
Mine arrived from Universal with a dent on the corner of the outer box , thought about sending it back but like you I knew I wouldnt get another so Im keeping it .
Always happens , dosnt matter how they box them up they hardly ever get to us unscathed .
Regarding the Macca Tug of War SDE, I’m not surprised the Amazon order’s are subject to damage…
Mine arrived Friday from Amazon Italy….Pathetic packaging for such a heavy weight item… no cushioning or layered spaced protection, the box set was pressed right against the sides of the packaging, which also leaves it vulnerable to damage if one scores/cuts the parcel tape:
I just wanted to *warn* those who have any Amazon orders which manage to arrive: I advise avoiding using scissors or blade to cut/score open the tape between the top or bottom flaps on the largest sides of the outer packaging, and try tearing the tape off instead..
I hardly let the scissors blade penetrate, but it tore the shrink wrap of the box set and lightly scored the contents card :(
I hope to have chance to explore the set next weekend
I received my too Macca SDE from Amazon Canada in perfect condition: the two items were shrink wrapped with a protective cardboard with corners, so no damage whatsoever during transport.
They also used this kind of cardboard for protection for the previous two, which is great!!
Sorry to hear about your “Undeliverable” issues (happened to me many times), but I am surprised Amazon couldn’t replace it. With other extremely limited editions (e.g. for me JK Rowling book, Iron Maiden picture LP box set), I was usually offered a replacement as they stated it was policy to “keep some back” for such an issue – and indeed, you do see stock re-offered a couple of weeks later when no one has made claims for replacements / missing orders. So fingers crossed, Paul!
If you or anyone wants a video comparing the versions, happy to do one in a couple of weeks time when I return from overseas (yup, spot the sad collector…).
I ordered Tug of War super deluxe from macca’s website. It was shipped last Monday and is supposed to be here this coming Monday. I’ve been rather disappointed with the archive series but I did buy this one. Frankly, and a bit shallow on my part, I’ll probably sell it and if I’m lucky enough I’ll have enough to buy the other ones!! The books look nice but the audio and video bonus material hasn’t been there to justify the expense in my book.
Great article this week again, but sorry to hear about the Macca. At least these releases did better in the physical chart than Joe Jackson who got to 95 with his excellent new album Fast Forward. Funny but the only time I have seen him live was at the Rolling Stones Roundhay Park gig which was announced on SDE this week so a bit of a coincidence. Certainly hope to see him again!
If you order the Garbage 2CD deluxe edition from Amazon you get the full 62 track download as your autorip. It costs £10.84 for the 2CD version, and I ordered and did the download today.
That’s quite good :)
Thanks for letting us know that Phil.
I will assume my pre-order was cancelled as I ordered it when it was priced £6.99. The download is now priced at £13.99 so it’s cheaper to buy the 2-CD with the free 62 track download.
Thanks for the heads up, took advantage of that this evening.
Sorry to hear about all this Paul.
I ordered the deluxe editions of Tug Of War and Pipes Of Peace from Amazon Canada and they arrived perfectly intact via courier @ the beginning of the week.
I feel the super deluxe editions of Macca’s recent offerings show an utter disdain for those who have followed his career for a long time.
Michael
After posting on here for years now I see that someone else has my name but with a capital B. Crap, will have to change it…
As for the Garbage release. My Amazon order for all the remixes which were mp3 only got cancelled. Not sure if it got cancelled on i-tunes as well.
I ordered the super deluxe version from Amazon Italy a day before it was announced on this website. Fortunately, the item has been posted and I’m waiting for it to arrive. I guess, once news of Amazon Italy were selling copies, an influx of orders were received.
Paul, do you know what the damage is?
I guess it’ll bring the limited edition down from 1000 to 999 copies worldwide.
Mine was cancelled by Amazon Italy. Apparently lack of stock.
Smells like BS to me. They probably never had it.
I ordered the Tug and Pipes deluxe sets from Macca.com and I got a message to say that they had been delayed due to some issue with the discs. Somewhat surprised that Amazon still managed to get copies out on time…
Sorry to hear about your “issues” with Amazon France (or indeed the carrier) Paul.
I’ve also ended up being let down on this as both Amazon France and Italy have failed to fulfill orders.
Did anybody actually get the Tug of War super deluxe edition from Amazon?
Mine arrived on time from Amazon Canada. And at the bargain price as advertised on here. Even factoring in fairly hefty import charges was very pleased with it.
Same situation. I got charged about £30 import on both deluxe books and both LPs, so not too bad. Still saved about £50.
I got mine from Amazon Italy after an announcement here. I have No. 700 (numbered on the rather smart cardboard outer packaging) although the hand numbered prints say 699…………….
well you know… Italy, Russia, Poland, China and some other countries known for cds and lps counterfeiting.
Hmm. I had an amazon UK order get returned as undeliverable when it didn’t even have time to have got to my house let alone there and back. Funnily enough the prices were higher and they said they wouldn’t redeliver. After some to-ing and fro-ing they honoured the original price. That was annoying enough. You must be pretty gutted.