Promo packaging vs Final packaging

I added the following note to my milkfactory review of the rather lovely Efterklang album. Bruno chose not to include it, fair enough as it doesn’t relate specifically to the music in question. I’m remarking on it now because Jim at No.9 has sent through the cd with full, rather than cutdown digipak packaging and I’m prompted to say that the experience really is a greater one and however superificial it implies that I am (I would contend it doesn’t, at least in this case). The cover has two flaps which open outwards with the cd in the middle, each inside flap is full of small semaphor-like figures, behind the cd is an image that implies a narrative. Most of the cover is black and white, but there’s an image of two little girls in ballet costume which is rendered in colour. The cutdown version I initially received and which I reviewed was entirely monochrome. The difference in intuitive assimilation is significant.

The Leaf Label along with a number of other labels chooses to send out review copies of cds which contain only cutdown copies of the booklet so that it’s not possible to know whether any form of lyric sheet and additional details is included. Although perhaps understandable from an economic viewpoint, such practice mitigates against a proper assessment of the sum of music, graphics, lyrics, etc. When many record companies claim to suffer economically from music downloads the ability of reviews to describe the attractiveness of the package as a whole would seem a necessary investment.