Thursday, March 09, 2006

Great CD cover art

People don't buy very many CD singles any more. What's the point, when you can download the song for 99 cents from iTunes?

Only hard-core fans and completists buy singles nowadays, which is why the trend lately has been for CD singles to come out in two parts. The same single is on CD1 and CD2, but with different b-sides. This is a cynical ploy by record companies to squeeze a few extra bucks out of rabid fans, but I've made my peace with it.

It may not come as a total shock that I have every b-side that Morrissey has ever released (they are often as good, or even better than the album tracks). When I pre-ordered both versions the new single, "You Have Killed Me," I noticed that part 1 and part 2 have different covers:

CD1:
CD2:


iTunes can't compete with this. I love Morrissey.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The last singles I bought for the b-sides were all the U2 singles from the Joshua Tree (on vinyl). I love those songs as much if not more than all the album tracks. They were later released on a b-side cd comp.

(When cds replaced vinyl I really mourned the loss of the cover art and sleeve jackets. But now I couldn't care less. Vinyl's so inconvenient.)

White Man Retarded said...

Where's a good train when you need one?

Capt. Obsidian said...

The same single is on CD1 and CD2, but with different b-sides. This is a cynical ploy by record companies to squeeze a few extra bucks out of rabid fans...

To quote from Morissey himself:

Reissue! Repackage! Repackage!
Re-evaluate the songs
Double-pack with a photograph
Extra Track (and a tacky badge).

Best of! Most of!
Satiate the need
Slip them into different sleeves!
Buy both, and feel deceived