Clear Sleep

I have mentioned before on this blog that I am a big fan of The 1975, and since their newest record landed a few days ago, it seems about right to talk about it. I've given it a couple of listens and I'm really impressed by both the musical content and the packaging. As I'm writing this I'm giving Vile Art by Ritual Mess a spin, and it feels a world away but we'll see how we get on. 

The 1975 - I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It - Dirty Hit // Interscope // Polydor - 1st Press - Clear - /? (2 x LP // 180g W/ HMV Exclusive Slipcase) 

This is the slickest packaging I've seen for a double LP in quite some time. It definitely feels worth the jump compared to it's CD equivalent which you sometimes don't get from major labels. The records are housed in a nice thick gatefold sleeve with lovely printed inners, but more on those a little later. 

The LP comes housed in a pink O-Card. It's completely plain and was marketed as a HMV exclusive. I think there was an Indie Store exclusive postcard set, and then an Amazon exclusive variant on White instead of Clear wax. 

Sticker on the shrink, I guess with having nothing on the O-Card this is handy. However, if you went into a HMV looking for this record, I guess even without the sticker you could have an educated guess right? 

The cover is obviously similar to the first album, only in colour as opposed to Black and White of the self titled. The album even kicks off with a reinterpretation of the opening track from the debut. 

The back cover is the album title written in lights, an artistic theme throughout the record. 

The centre labels are fairly identical for all four sides, but they look great with the circular text. 

The inserts are used for the lyrics only, and so it seemed a little pointless photographing all sides when you can get the idea from this small section of the A-Side insert. 

All four sides of the insert come with the text THE 1975 - ILIKEITWHENYOUSLEEPFORYOUARESOBEAUTIFULYETSOUNAWAREOFIT along with the respective side letter A-D. 

The strip lights come into play again with the album art, as they spell out the track titles for all 17 songs on the record. The lights are all in different locations, and I believe the Indie exclusive postcards were a few of these photographs. 

As there are 17 tracks and 18 squares 'The 1975' gets used twice. 

To keep the inserts for lyrics alone, the credits fit inside the gatefold under the photographs. There are all credits, individual and band thanks. 

Finally, the record came with a couple of download codes. They got a little bent inside the gatefold, but they're still pretty great looking. 

I know they're not everyone's thing, and I guess a good percentage of the readers here aren't big fans. But you can't deny that this is a really well thought out package. I kind of wish I dived in on the boxset, but you can't buy everything right? 

Cheers!