WFTSC Alternative Album Cover?

donello wrote:

Hey Howard...what's Peter Saville up to these days?

It's too bad NO didn't want to go with the reconstruction of the PC&L cover...I thought it would've been a great idea.  Why didn't the band go for it?

The biggest problem is that it has absolutely nothing to do with the content of this album.

Another problem is repeating the cover is not original and can be confusing for people less familiar with New Order, who might believe, looking quickly in a  shelf of a record store, that WFTSC is just another version of PCL and not a different album released, my God!, 22 years later!!!

I agree with the decision of not doing it, I'd just like to know the true cover of the new album and knowing how they went from that to the actual cover which is now in the shop... it's not that they slightly modified it or thought at a different concept with a picture, it would look like they gave up on doing a proper cover at all, almost as if that "No" stands for "No, we won't do another cover if you don't want the one we made...". I know I'm inventing everything, but it would look like a protest against the ultra-PC paranoia of Warners...

You are getting closer now... Cross reference this image you found with the Time Life book I mentioned earlier and you have cracked it...

If you are looking at the right spread - it is not the horse!

The artwork is INSIDE the booklet.

Sorry for the late reply.

Probably you won't remember when I wrote on the Ceremony ML that I was going to burn down the fookin record shop because Get Ready was taking more than three weeks to arrive...

Well, this time I didn't even want to try, I was already prepared to order it online... today I entered a record shop for an entirely different reason, I was just looking for a CD of an Italian band, but what do I hear pumping on the store stereo?!

So goodbye love, you were not real...

Hey but this is Dracula's fookin Castle!

I know the girl of the shop is a New Order fan so I just tell her "This is a great album, isn't it?"

And she says "Yes really, I adore it!"

I wasn't even thinking at the German (hence European) release which happens before the English, I asked her if it was the MP3 or one of those promo copies which have been sent even here in Italy to record stores, DJs and journalists.

She replies, "No, it's the CD!" and shows me the CD case.

I just smile and say "What, earlier than in UK?"

I immediately notice that, on the side of the cover, you can see in transparency a really nice rainbow shade, and that makes the whole thing prettier.

Yes, the cover is the one we already know.

The rainbow shade is the piece under the CD which has an image a bit similar to Peter Saville's wasted paintings...

Anyway I buy the CD, taking it from a listening post with at least 20 CDs at the centre of the main room of the store.

At home I play it, noticing an overall obvious better sound quality than the MP3 files that we've been hearing in these weeks... songs like Hey Now What You Doing sound even better on the CD, but anyway I think there aren't any differences between the songs, nothing seems changed so the MP3 files didn't come from an early promo CD at some sort of stage before the final mix, but probably from one of those CDs they send to many people when the record is already finished.

While I play it I carefully explore the booklet.

Now read if you really don't prefere to discover it yourself, I don't want to spoil anyone's fun, it's been beautiful for me to discover every page without knowing how it was...

page 1: the cover (all the words on the booklet have been written in orange on white, the CD itself too)

page 2: the cover folds inside like a book, and there's the first photo, it's sort of dark but there's just this lonely parassol with ads (one I think it's Nestea) closed on what's likely to be a seaside and clouds in the sky.

page 3: only the title

page 4: only the titles (the back cover of the CD case is the same but with the label info and the barcode added)

page 5: now I really like this picture, there's a rose out of focus, and behind it a suburban building similar to the one where the young couple of the video of Krafty go...

page 6: a rabbit

page 7: credits: Notice that the backing vocals of the title track are not credited, while all the others are (usually Dawn). Now we could even think it's Gillian?!

A sound engineer called Cenzo Townshend appears on most tracks, do you know anything about him?

page 8: this just looks like some technical equipment

page 9: other credits. The other vocalist with Dawn Zee on Guilt is Beatrice Hatherley. Keyboards and programming by Max Quayle... I'm proud one of the assistants is of Italian origins, Marco Migliari...

page 10: Art direction Saville, photography Saville (interesting he brought them) and Anna Blessman. Design Wakefield.

page 11: the harbour which appeared on Amazon and was thought to be a possible alternative cover... I think the seaside of page 2 is just placed on the right of what we see on page 11, which is kind of weird as it should be the other way round... the back cover folds inside like in page 2, hoping it didn't cost too much or they'll loose money like with Blue Monday...

page 12: only the numbers of the barcode...

The side of the CD case reads like this:

code title NEW order

All in all not a bad artwork once you have it in your hands and see it as a whole discovering the details.

I'm still not entirely convinced about the "No", but I admit it was instantly recognizable between all the other CDs in the shop, it's just really different... you walk there and all of a sudden you notice this huge "No", you just have to look what it is... the colour is alright... the rainbow shade on the left makes it prettier... and the booklet is just fabulous, almost as good as Republic... overall the photos have a melancholic feeling... the closed parassol, the rabbit, the  old quiet harbour... but the rose in the suburb is an element of beauty and hope...

Too bad I don't have a scanner, but it's also really beautiful to discover it yourself...

What looked like a poor idea on my computer is actually very beautiful once I have it in my hands... I'm just happy to see that big orange "No" on my desk... I take back my skepiticism and admit this is a great artwork. Well done Mr. Wakefield...