Unattended Luggage

Today Nick Mason released his box set of his three solo albums: Fictitious Sports, and the 'Mason + Renn' albums Profiles, and White of the Eye. I've had this on pre-order since the day it was announced in June, and ordered both the CD and vinyl sets. I had thought to keep the CD set in it's shrink wrap and just open the vinyl, but when it arrived I couldn't resist tearing into it! I'm always a bit torn on the issue of keeping things in shrink - the collector side of me knows it's a good idea, but at the same time I like to enjoy the things I collect. I collect all of this stuff because I love it, not with a mind to sell one day.

I'm already familiar with Nick's solo music, and to be honest have been a bit shocked with many Floyd fans who have admitted they haven't given any of it as a listen before or even knew some of these albums existed. Profiles isn't my cup of tea (it's very 80s!) but the other two albums are very nice listens. I've already got a first pressing of Fictitious Sports on vinyl, and am glad to have the full collection at last.




This is the CD set, each disc is in a cardboard sleeve like a mini LP (minus the inner sleeve) as is typical of Pink Floyd CDs nowadays. It's nicely put together, and the box is exactly the same as the larger vinyl box, but it's a bit disappointing that there's no kind of booklet. There's minimal information about any of the albums beside the track listing, and I think it would of been nice to include a CD booklet giving a little overview of Nick's solo career.





And this is the vinyl box set! It's typical remastering quality LPs on heavyweight vinyl, and as far as I can tell from my original copy of Fictitious Sports, exact replicas of the original sleeves and centre labels. The outside box is nice and sturdy, with a matte finish that feels kind of rubbery (I don't know if there's a proper term for it, but hopefully you know what I mean! 😂) I haven't had a chance to give it a listen yet so can't comment on the sound quality, but I was pleased to see in the liner notes that Nick has had a hand in the remastering himself.




Also my ticket to see Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets arrived today!