This article, reprinted here with the permission of its author, orginally appeared in Completely Different on October 1, 1997

Wow! All eight original Python albums -- including the hard-to-find (in the US) "Live at Drury Lane" album - on six CDs! A perfect addition to any Python fan’s collection, right?

Wrong.

Where to begin? Where to begin? Well, let’s start with the packaging. Rather than being designed by Terry Gilliam, as the original albums were, the box and the CD covers are done in a Gilliam-esque style which is - in my opinion - inferior to the original. I understand that Gilliam would be too busy with his career as a director to do new artwork for this set, but why couldn’t Virgin have reused some of his older stuff, like maybe THE ARTWORK FROM THE ORIGINAL ALBUMS?

Which brings me to the booklet...

Ordinarily, the booklets that come with box sets include a history of whatever the set happens to be about. This one contains a bunch of stuff taken from Monty Python’s Big Red Book and The Brand New Monty Python Bok. Funny stuff, for the most part, but if I want that stuff, I’ll get the books (in fact, I have the books). There’s also a little bit taken from the liner notes of the original albums, which brings up another point of contention: WHY NOT INCLUDE ALL THE LINER NOTES? Wouldn’t that be more appropriate? Oh yeah, they also have a small amount of space showing the original album covers, but it’s done as a collage with so much overlap you can only see a few of them clearly.

Still, you say, so what if the packaging and booklet suck, the disks are what’s important, right?

Right.

Unfortunately, someone had the bright idea of, instead of having a separate track for each sketch/song/whatever, they did one track for each side of the original record. The only possible explanation I can think of (other than Virgin just being a bunch of cheap bastards) is that someone reasoned that, since Python is very stream-of consciousness, it’s best to listen to each side the whole way through. To that I say: "Get Stuffed!" While I certainly enjoy watching or listening to Python shows in their entirety, the fact is: It’s a CD, and if I want to find a specific sketch or song, I should be able to without having to do a lot of scanning back-and-forth. Besides, none of the albums are completely stream-of-consciousness, particularly "Live at Drury Lane" and "Contractual Obligation Album." Anyway, there are only two tracks for "Matching Tie and Handkerchief," there should be three. The albums are all available on separate CDs, with more than two tracks. Buy them instead.

Considering what a mish-mash this is, I can only hope that none of the Pythons authorized it. If they did - BAD PYTHONS! BAD, WICKED, NAUGHTY PYTHONS!

I suppose it’s too late to ask if anyone wants to buy my set? It’s barely used!