I often appreciate the package design as much as the music when buying and playing records. From liner notes to covers and inserts, there’s always been just as much for me to dig into in visual terms, especially with certain albums.
Today I grabbed my copy of the Sub Pop 200, a compilation from 1988 that was originally issued as a very limited vinyl run. I only own the CD version, which came later and isn’t as rare. But as I listened to this collection of early grunge artifacts this morning, I remembered how great the box itself is, just as a designed object. We talk about the need for packaging to match content, and I think this is a good example of that. But beyond that, it’s a piece of design that’s a nice hybrid of clean and punk. Which I think makes sense here, although in the early days Sub Pop was surely more punk than professional and clean.
Anyway, these are the things that make me happy: having something like this that I can hold in my hand, read and hear, and feel that there’s something perfectly cohesive about it.
