FIRST PICTURES: Mike Oldfield / “Crises” box set and deluxe edition
Mike Oldfield‘s Crises reissue is out this week. A review of the music will come later, but for your pleasure, we present this photo gallery of the five-disc box and the two-CD deluxe edition.
The box measures around 20cm x 15.5cm and is similar to other Universal sets including the T.Rex Electric Warrior super deluxe edition. While the two-disc deluxe has a glossy finish, the box opts for a matt laminated coating and Terry llot’s cover painting survives the transition from square to rectangle rather well.
The 38 page hardcover book tells the story of the album effectively, with lots of photos of memorabilia, including concert tickets, picture discs and record sleeves. Apart from the book there are no ‘extras’ in the box like the art cards and poster included with Electric Warrior, and unlike that set – and the forthcoming Tears For Fears / The Hurting box – the discs are not in gatefold wallets, rather simple, single sleeves.
The design doesn’t vary for the cover of each disc sleeve (3CDs and 2DVDs) so they are numbered top right, for easy reference. The box comes with one of those ribbons, to help to get the contents easily from the box.
The deluxe set is an eight-panel gatefold digipack and the 16-page booklet contains the same essay as the book, along with a selection of photos.
The box set has actually sold out, but Universal are pressing some more, so availability should not be an issue. Full track listing and more details here.
5-disc box set
- • UK Pre-order: Crises box set
- • USA Pre-order: Crises box set
- • CANADA Pre-order: Crises box set
- • GERMANY Pre-order: Crises box set
2-disc deluxe edition
- • UK Order: Crises Deluxe Edition
- • US Pre-order: Crises Deluxe Edition
- • CANADA Pre-order: Crises: Deluxe Edition
- • GERMANY Order: Crises Deluxe Edition)
More photos below:
5-disc box set
- • UK Pre-order: Crises box set
- • USA Pre-order: Crises box set
- • CANADA Pre-order: Crises box set
- • GERMANY Pre-order: Crises box set
2-disc deluxe edition
- • UK Order: Crises Deluxe Edition
- • US Pre-order: Crises Deluxe Edition
- • CANADA Pre-order: Crises: Deluxe Edition
- • GERMANY Order: Crises Deluxe Edition)
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Mine arrived yesterday. It’s identical packaging-wise to the Big Country At The BBC set – same size box, same size hardback book, same internal packaging, but you get one more slipcased disc and no posters or postcards. Also, as far as I can tell, the contents of the book are identical to those of the booklet in the standard Deluxe Edition, albeit a bit more spread out and with bigger pictures.
The two live concerts (Wembley ’83 in Crises and Cologne ’82 in 5MO) aren’t noticeably better-sounding than the versions widely available on bootlegs. The Wembley video is rather poor quality, but interesting to watch.
The 5.1 mixes of both albums are, at least at a quick flick though, really good – not had a chance to sit down and carefully listen to them all yet, but a quick sampling last night was very promising.
Oh, and the one really unreleased track on these sets – the demo version of Five Miles Out – is almost worth the price of admission on its own!
I think it’s ironic that the record companies are moaning about lack of sales, yet here is an item that is obviously selling very well, but you can’t get it. Demand outstrips supply. Maybe companies should have more confidence in their product. SpinCD are having to source their copies from Holland!
Everybody wants this item, so the record companies increase price for this box set. I think that old pre-order price is around £30. I am satisfied with single disc.
The same things will happen with Tears For Fears box. Pre-order price for my pre-order is only £22,32 on dvd.co.uk (box £20,83 + shipping £1,49). Now price for this box is also increased. On amazon is around £30. In a few years these box sets will be rare collectors items.
I have mine on order with SpinCD. They have a release date of 16th September though I have noticed that the price has gone up from £39.99 to £49.99
I received my copy. I pre-ordered at £31 on Amazon, they’re added £15 to this at the time I’m typing this.
As for the set – I’ve posted a review on Amazon.co.uk – the box is rather spartan, the ribbon is totally unnecessary. The “book” is also disappointing – 32 pages, of which only ten are for the article (which presents just the bare facts).
The music though is terrific.
Do you have any date of the rerelease. Seems to be rather expensive first round copies out there at the moment.
For those of you ordering the box from Germany: beware of removing the infamous FSK sticker. Sadly it is stuck on the actual box itself and not on the plastic wrapping. The glue used for this sticker is very adhesive and as such the glue stays for most part on the box if you removed it plus it almost tore of the actual part of the packaging. Best practice is to leave it where it is.