When Layouts Change: Records That Are Repressed With New Layouts, Part 1

This is an article I've been meaning to write for a long time but just never got around to doing so. A pet peeve of mine is when a label re-presses a record but changes the layout. Sometimes, this is because the band and label didn't have the money or time to put into what they originally envisioned or because a label has bought the rights to the record and re-released it, often with remastered sound. Half of me is alright with this idea at times but the other half of me, the half that is the nostalgic collector wants to have the original. Like I said, sometimes this is fine with me because the original layout may have been...well just not very good. Below are a few examples of records that were originally released by their respected labels and then repressed by either the original or another with a different layout. For now, I've just scanned the covers but Ill try to get the rest of the layouts scanned as well. The original is on the left and the repress is on the right.





















Shelter - Quest For Certainty (Original: Equal Vision, 1992. Repress: Revelation, 1998)
An early release for Equal Vision Records when they still concentrated on releasing only Krishna-core record, this records comes in a close second to Mantra as my favorite Shelter release. The original has a black and white cover with a nice sky blue firewheel while the repress has a new black and white photo but the fonts have been changed to red. This is a case where I'm alright with either release. Both have live photos on the cover and there isnt much of a difference other than the actual photo.




















Culture - Born Of You (Original: Conquer The World, 1994. Repress: Goodlife, 1998)
A record that created an incredible amount of controversy over the past few years, controversy that I am not going to go into here (do a search on here for "Culture" and you'll see). The original release features a picture of the famed "Portrait Of Pope Innocent X" by Sir Francis Bacon. While this cover is very representative of the time, I feel that the repress gives the album more energy with the cover depicting Damien handing out the mic to the crowd. Culture was very much about crowd participation and this cover portrays that to the listener. I only wish that the band would have used the logo that Guav created for that them as opposed to the logo on the repress.





















Doughnuts - Equalize Nature (Original and Repress: Desperate Fight, 1994 and 1996)
A much maligned band, Doughnuts were touted as the first all girl SXE band back in 1995. They released their first record with Desperate Fight out of Umea, Sweden and then signed with Victory Records in America. Equalize Nature, their first release, was originally released in a cardboard sleeve in 1994 and features the legendary "Naked SXE Kid" on the cover. To be honest, I'm not sure where they were going with this image on the cover but the re-release (also on Desperate Fight) shows a blurry live photo of the band. Perhaps Victory asked Desperate Fight to change the cover because they would have trouble getting the naked kid cover picked up in America. That's just my opinion, I have no idea if that's the reason. I have to say that the repress is an upgrade.





















As Friends Rust - The Fists Of Time (Original: Goodlife, 1998. Repress: Doghouse, 2000)
Now here's one where I prefer the original. Goodlife chose to use paintings by vocalist Damien as the cover as well as the insert. If you read the lyrics to the songs on this release, I feel that the cover really does a great job of capturing the mood of the record. When Doghouse released this in America, they included a track from the split with Discount as well as their Circle Jerks cover from the God Hour EP. This time around though, the cover shows a package addressed to the band. Not bad but to me, the cover of the original release conveys the band's message much better.

Check back soon for Part 2.