Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'll break the review down into two sections, the music and the box itself. The music- It is incredible. I have owned every Pink Floyd album in various incarnation from UK pressings, to US dollar bin vinyl, and dubbed cassettes to various CD masters. I am rather estranged from most of my vinyl and mostly had MP3 and FLAC versions of recent reissues. Since I had a lot of ad hoc versions downloaded from various sources I was pretty psyched to get the whole collection in one nice newly remastered box. And sonically they are incredible. People are looking for a revelation in sound in the other reviews and you won't necessarily find it here. This is not the first time Pink Floyd's catalog has been well mastered. But it is extraordinary. It is neither over-compressed nor "brick-walled," the dynamics are super clear and this reminds me very much of my old vinyl. Especially albums like Wish You Were Here and Animals, which have always had a tremendous amount of depth and clarity. There is a bit of sonic unity through the masters which is also welcome. You can have a cut from the Division Bell follow in your changer after something from Obscured By Clouds without sounding overly jarring. But that is meant as a compliment to the excellent mastering work which just lets the original tapes shine. The packaging- This is where I'm less psyched, and why I am not giving this five stars. The albums are all housed in digi-packs which doesn't bother me as much as other reviewers. However the lack of art does bother me. This is PINK FREAKING FLOYD! The visual element has always been very important. The new booklets are all 8-12 pages long but are mostly lyrics. In some cases, notably Wish You Were Here and the Wall there is actually LESS art than in previous editions. If this is a last push at giving people a gorgeous physical product they definitely fell way short of the mark. And the 60 page book is not very interesting or cool. There are a few outtakes that look a lot like the original covers. Snore. So in summary- from a sonic perspective this is probably the best these albums are ever going to sound on a 16 bit compact disc, and the consistency running through the discs is stellar. However the love put into the sound does not carry over into the bland box which does not do the visual style of Pink Floyd justice.