BMG | UK | 2013

OMD: English Electric UK album [2013]

1. Please Remain Seated
2. Metroland
3. Night Café
4. The Future Will Be Silent
5. Helen of Troy
6. Our System
7. Kissing the Machine
8. Decimal
9. Stay With Me
10. Dresden
11. Atomic Ranch
12. Final Song

Last week OMD finally took the wraps off of the finished artwork for their upcoming “English Electric” album and the draft of the cover design that had been making the rounds was dramatically finished off. The basic album has the twelve cuts above, but in these days of  the “obligatory, fan gouging deluxe edition” [verbiage courtesy of Sir Vinny Vero] surely there is more at stake?

Of course there is! The band revealed the full granularity of packages available to the fan for purchase and while I run hot and cold on the realities of doing business in this manner, I have a tentative thumbs up for the path that the band ultimately took. Here’s the breakdown for the physical formats as available in the OMD webstore now for pre-order:

CD – £7.99

• Jewel Case
• 8 page Booklet

CDX – £10.99

• Limited Edition Media book
• Inner [artwork behind CD trays]
• 8 page Booklet
• CD/DVD [3 music vids + making of docu.]

Vinyl LP + CD – £19.99

• Die cut sleeve
• Printed Inner sleeve
• 1 x Heavy weight vinyl
• Album CD in card wallet

CD Boxset – £45

• Limited Edition collectors tin with embossed logo
• CD + DVD + Demo CD in 7″ gatefold card fold out
• 7″ single on colour vinyl with exclusive B-side
• 16 page 7″ booklet [including lyrics and exclusive photos]
• 2 x artwork prints [canvas paper]
• 2 x photo prints [photo paper]
• Certificate of authenticity signed by band
• 2 metal pin badges [pre orders only]

CDX + Boxset – £50

CDX

• Limited Edition Media book
• Inner [artwork behind CD trays]
• 8 page Booklet
• CD/DVD [3 music vids + making of docu.]

Boxset

• Limited Edition collectors tin with embossed logo
• CD/DVD/Demo CD in 7″ gatefold card fold out
• 7″ single on colour vinyl with exclusive B-side
• 16 page 7″ booklet [including lyrics and exclusive photos]
• 2 x artwork prints [canvas paper]
• 2 x photo prints [photo paper]
• Certificate of authenticity signed by band
• 2 metal pin badges [pre orders only]

Vinyl LP + Boxset – £60

Vinyl LP

• Die cut sleeve
• Printed Inner sleeve
• 1 x Heavy weight vinyl
• Album CD in card wallet

Boxset

• Limited Edition collectors tin with embossed logo
• CD/DVD/Demo CD in 7″ gatefold card fold out
• 7″ single on colour vinyl with exclusive B-side
• 16 page 7″ booklet [including lyrics and exclusive photos]
• 2 x artwork prints [canvas paper]
• 2 x photo prints [photo paper]
• Certificate of authenticity signed by band
• 2 metal pin badges [pre orders only]

CD + CDX + Vinyl LP + Boxset – £75

CD

• Jewel Case
• 8 page Booklet

CDX

• Limited Edition Media book
• Inner [artwork behind CD trays]
• 8 page Booklet
• CD/DVD [3 music vids + making of docu.]

Vinyl LP

• Die cut sleeve
• Printed Inner sleeve
• 1 x Heavy weight vinyl
• Album CD in card wallet

Boxset

• Limited Edition collectors tin with embossed logo
• CD/DVD/Demo CD in 7″ gatefold card fold out
• 7″ single on colour vinyl with exclusive B-side
• 16 page 7″ booklet [including lyrics and exclusive photos]
• 2 x artwork prints [canvas paper]
• 2 x photo prints [photo paper]
• Certificate of authenticity signed by band
• 2 metal pin badges [pre orders only]

Wow. That’s a lot to digest, but the big thing this time is there are no t-shirts involved. But the dramatic return of metal pin badges make up for this. Hopefully, these are the deluxe enamel kind. So there are a host of format/price points to choose from. The basic CD is superseded by a CD/DVD package. At the next level, the die cut vinyl LP [shades of their prize-winning debut!] comes complete with the album CD in a card sleeve. Much nicer than a download code! Vinyl fetishists who prefer CDs [author raises hand] could be well served by this option at roughly $30 American.

The next level is over twice that price and for me, where things get interesting. The boxed set in a tin has a second CD of demos as well as a 7″ with exclusive B-side. I hope that I can pre-order one of these before the March 8th sale date. Last time the boxed format of OMD’s “History Of Modern” actually did sell out on pre-sale. I was one who didn’t have to pay Ebay tax, but financially, I was in a very different place in 2010.  The stormy seas of my finances may be previously known to past readers of this blog. My record auctions will hopefully allow me to pre-order this but I’m not crossing my fingers.

After that, the combined packages are simply for extreme collectors who require every format of the release. It seems that I can be sated for roughly $70 – what I paid the last time they released a boxed version of their new album. I am pleased that the exclusive music buy-in cost has been kept stable and the higher priced packages are not packed with more exclusive music. I had voiced my opinion on the OMD forum on this issue a few years back and am comfortable with what they have set out a wide range at many price points. I respect these highly granular fan packages that don’t punish fans of music who might not want the special holographic picture sleeve for just $40 more.

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