Tumble. The writings and findings of a web designer.

When I set out to write this post, it was intended to simply show off some of the great album packaging and artwork I’ve come across recently. Instead, it turned into a lengthy post about why I prefer to buy physical albums over digital albums and touched on everything from tangibility, pricing differences, iTunes LP, etc.; but, it was straying too far. Maybe I’ll continue it another day, but in short, yes, I still buy more physical albums than I do digital and it’s all because of a love for the artwork. I’m really a vinyl junkie at heart.

This past week I bought two new albums, Brother Ali’s Us and Monsters of Folk’s untitled debut album. Us is a digipak with a glossy coating. The geometric/silhouette-themed artwork all around is fantastic and, on the front, it’s embossed. Inside, the liner notes with lyrics are printed on the backside of a fold-out “poster”.

The Monsters of Folk album is packaged in a heavy cardstock digipak featuring some great illustration and photography work throughout. The booklet includes lyrics to each song and contains more illustrations.

Both really great overall. Oh, and I bought both of these at Best Buy for $9.99 apiece. For me, the convenience of buying digital will never trump owning a physical piece of art, especially when they share the same price point. Spotify may balance out my buying habits when it launches here in the US, but for artists I’m really interested in, I’ll always prefer the real thing.