Beck Taiwan "Information" CD

The Taiwanese Information CD features a cardboard obi strip. From my point of view, this obi strip is not as pretty as the Japanese edition’s obi strip. Compared with the Japanese obi strip, the Taiwanese version lacks: (1) the innovation of a uniquely colored Beck lego name (in fact, it is missing that logo altogether); (2) reproductions of stickers (it has no Beck-themed illustrations at all); (3) the lovely textual coloring that enhances some of the Japanese characters; (4) the blue and white grid theme; and (5) the clever positioning of the Beck lego name overlay just where the Beck name sticker is placed on the cover of the other CD editions. What the Taiwanese obi strip does have are blurbs from magazines such as the New Yorker, Time, Spin and also MTV; most if not all of these blurbs evidently refer to earlier albums and singles by Beck. The track listing has a unique aspect to it: “Inside Out” is described as a “BONUS TRACK”, whereas in all other versions, the bonus tracks aren’t identified as such. The Japanese obi strip showed a keen aesthetic sense, but the Taiwanese obi strip is merely functional.

The Beck discography at the magnificent whiskeyclone.net correctly identifies the Taiwanese version as a product of Germany. The clues are many and obvious, including the German writing in the green box on the back of the CD case. Whiskeyclone covers it all except for one aspect: the inner ring around the birdlike creature in the Universal symbol on the obi strip is colored with the colors of the German flag. This strongly suggests that the obi strip was printed in Germany. It seems that this German-made version of The Information CD is the edition that has been distributed throughout Europe (except for the U.K.), as whiskeyclone.net has noted.

The lettering of the track listing is the same for the U.K. and the Japanese versions, but this German/Taiwanese version has a slightly different design. The typeface is the same, but is slightly compressed and somewhat like boldface. (From my point of view, this variation loses a little bit of the elegance of the other versions.) As for the other information on the back of the CD, this is the only international CD version that I have seen which has any information beyond the track listing, the copyright data, and the barcode: in this case, the green box with the German words. As for the barcode, it should be noted that the Japanese CD is the only version (that I have seen) which does without the eyesore of a barcode. (Notice the one extra track, “Inside Out”. The U.K. version has two extra tracks, and the Japanese version has three extra tracks.)

This edition comes in a “super jewel box”, a new type of CD case that is advertised here and there on the Internet as the next generation in the manufacture of CD cases. For what it’s worth, I’m not sure if some of the design innovations are in fact advancements. For one thing, good luck trying to remove the stickers from the inside front cover. The plastic tabs keeping the stickers and the grid in place are positioned along the left- and right-hand sides rather than at the top and bottom, and this seemingly innocuous change actually makes it a somewhat arduous task to remove the stickers without damaging them (or I might just be feeble). Moreover, the super jewel box cannot simply be opened like a normal CD case; one must press down on a clasp before the cover will swing open. Supposedly this is to protect the CD, but the clasp only makes opening the case a somewhat annoying process (unless this is more evidence of my feebleness). But the super jewel box has something going for it after all. On a normal CD case, both the top and bottom edges lack artwork: all you get is plastic. In the super jewel box, however, the CD artwork decorates these two parts of a CD case as well. This edition of The Information CD has an extra bit of the grid pattern at the top and bottom of the CD case.