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| “Bilingual”
was launched on September 1996 as the sixth album of Pet Shop Boys. The
artwork was designed by Mark farrow and PSB using photos of Chris Heath,
José Cea and Andy Earl and the original idea had been that it should look
like luxury packaging. The first attempt for the CD was a pillow pack
-a rigid, curved, opaque case, that didn’t work because it was too expensive.
A second idea was a sandblasted front, but that also proved too costly.
In the end, a semi-opaqued frosted surface was used on the CD case forming
the single word “Bilingual” in clear plastic; underneath, the yellow booklet
can be seen with the word “Pet Shop Boys” visible beneath the title. |
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The
LP was an attempt to emulate the CD case using a yellow panel with white
type and frame instead. The pictures inside were all holiday snaps or
informal photographs taken during the ‘Discovery Tour’ or for “Literally”.
All the images were printed twice to reflect the ‘bi’ for ‘bilingual’
and this was the first time the lyrics were included in the album package.
As part of the promotion, a special edition titled “A Taste of Bilingual”
was produced in a 12” x 8”, PVC ‘frosted’ box including a 5-track CD,
photo prints, chronology and biography of the band.
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| The
LP, CD and Cassette releases of “Bilingual” included 12 tracks
and used the same artwork. Almost a year later a Double Special Edition
of the album was released including a bonus CD titled “Bilingual Remixed”
including remixes of most of the singles and B-Sides of the album and
featuring a photo taken by Andy Earl printed twice in a yellow frame with
yellow type. On June 2001 a remastered edition of “Bilingual” was produced
as part of the “Further Listening” series including the original album
and a bonus CD with some Remixes, Demos, B-Sides and unreleased versions
of songs of the “Bilingual-era”; the front cover, as the rest of the “Further
Listening” series, was the original CD artwork in yellow -and clear yellow
simulating the ‘frosted’ packaging without any type on it. |
