Whilst on the one hand it's good to see the Gatsby soundtrack doing well, I can't help but think this is yet another lost opportunity by Team BF and / or his record company. I am now constantly seeing The Great Gatsby soundtrack in places like HMV and Sainsbury's, flanked by other 'jazz age' CDs (of dubious quality and one rather mimicking TJA artwork) but is there any sign of TJA? Of course not. Surely it should have been possible to get a few copies displayed in the same way as this crop of bandwagon jumpers? Or even, heaven forfend, spend a tenner on some promotional stickers!
Once again, a missed chance. It seems to me those directly involved aren't so much rabbits caught in the headlights, they're roadkill.

It does seem as though BF's record company BMG Rights Management could have been more aggressive in getting TJA into HMV and Sainsbury, but this state of affairs may simply represent BMG's focus on digital downloading as the primary means of marketing TJA. The cost of physically manufacturing and distributing cds is not insignificant, and it appears that BMG has decided that the expense of extensively promoting TJA as a traditional cd is not cost effective.

As an Old School guy who likes cds, this is not a happy state of affairs, but the Digerati of Internet Culture don't care about me and my ilk. We are old and in the way. Sad to say, if I put on my Impartiality Hat I can see why BMG might make a perfectly reasonable decision to emphasize on-line sales/downloads. I wish it was different, but welcome to the 21st century...

TJA made it into my local HMV (Hull) next to the Gatsby soundtrack at a price of £7.99. What is a bit peeving is having downloaded the Ferry jazz sessions album from the Gatsby film (or whatever its called), there are now additional tracks popping up. What with these on top of the endless Olympia remixes it would be nice to just buy things once.

indeed wrighta, it's like dandelions after a rain has falled (yes, I know it should be fallen), wait! there's more! over there! LOL!

"The Jazz Age" being re-advertised on ITV this morning with some of the review headlines along the bottom of the screen. "The Great Gatsby of Pop" being one of them!

Cher DJC,
Despair not — you are not the only ageing hipster out there with this problem!
As a real old school vinyl guy I wish to hold and, dare I say it , smell a record and its cover. I long for the days when it was possible to enjoy the cover art. Read the sleeve notes and actually know who was playing. Not to mention the physical act of turning the album over to discover side two.
For me the first treachery was your love, the cd. We were told it was better and would last forever. I fell for it and replaced all my vinyl with these monstrosities. How I regret that one. Albeit Mrs.Windswept thought it freed up storage space that could somehow translate into wardrobe facilities. Apart from not having to double up with cassettes for the voiture there were few benefits and when, after 20 years of loyal service, my trusty B&O 9000 finally packed up on me I flirted with the idea of returning to a vinyl/digital combo but eventually went with a BeoSound 5 Encore that, although not cheap, does restore some of the pleasure I used to get from playing with a jukebox. It makes the act of reviewing your catalogue more pleasurable and they are quite nice to look at. I play it through my old pencil speakers and the sound quality is quite good. Although I still miss that vinyl hiss.
One thing that our hero's company could do is to develop an option that would allow you to buy cover art and sleeve notes with your download. The challenge is to re-instate the emotional connection.
Meanwhile I suppose we'll all have to fandango along and count this is progress!
All is not lost, I love TJA and it is becoming one of my all time favourite Ferry albums.
Regards,
Windswept

WS2:
I stuck with vinyl for a long time into the 90s and then finally migrated to cds simply for ease and convenience. Like you, I certainly miss the large visual character of vinyl albums and consider this to be a major loss associated with the cd format.

Vinyl albums had a distinct sound format in that there were necessarily two sides to any album. And each side had its own sequencing and aural structure. Cds changed that dynamic, but they also allowed for a new conception of what constituted an album. I think of Mamouna (released in '94) as a good and successful example of a cd conceived as one cycle of songs and not as two album sides joined together.

I know there has been much ink spilled on the "which sounds better, analog or digital" debate and I am somewhere in the middle on that discussion. I don't miss the hiss, crackle, and pop of old vinyl, but there is definitely something that can lost with the clear and clean sound of digital recording and playback.

I never got rid of my vinyl collection and I keep thinking that one of this days I'll get a new (yet simple) turntable system and allow my self the pleasure of revisiting the 33 rpm albums and 45s of my youth. And one of those pleasures will be playing the Eno/Fripp recording of Heavenly Music Corp at 45 rpm. It sounds good at 33 but even better at 45...

Mon Ami,
Great point about Mamouna - having to turn it over would have been a complete enigma.
How I envy you keeping your vinyl!
Regards,
Windswept

There would never have been an East and West Side without vinyl.

Aside: I still think the East Side is one of he most underrated RM sides.