CD

As A Short Album About Love, Fin De Siècle was also released worldwide by Sony Records. This release can be found in Sony’s listings for Canada, Eastern Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, …), Russia and Asia (with a Taiwanese obi strip). However as the CD does not features any bonus, it is often mistaken for the regular UK album. However it has a few differences from the original release.

• First, the back cover features a different bar code, different catalogue numbers (two beside the bar code, and one on each side) and the words ‘Distribution Sony Music’. A ‘CDC’ logo is also to be found.
• The catalogue number is to be found again on the last page of the booklet.
• The CD has a grey dashed background and features on the edge the catalogue numbers, copyright notes and various logos including the SACEM’s logo.
  Around the centre is engraved: IFPI L551 S0149154410-0101 11 A4 and on the centre spin is engraved: ‘IFPI 948S’ on some copies or ‘IFPI 94H5’ on some other.
• Last, but not least, on the back of the original CD case we can spot ‘Sony Music’. Probably because the CD case was manufactured by Sony themselves.

The Asian versions of the disc came with an obi strip and an additional lyrics sheet. The obi strip features the band and album names (in English and Taiwanese), a flag to show the nationality of the band, and a small review (in Taiwanese) on back. The front also features 3 names of songs (‘Generation Sex’, ‘Eric The Gardener’ and ‘Here Comes The Flood’ which looks like an unusual choice: probably those were favourites from the editor.

The lyrics sheet is not similar to the additional booklet of the UK release: it is a simple white paper with all lyrics printed on it. It features the album and band names in English and Taiwanese, as well as Sony’s address on the other side. The catalogue number is to be found again on the sheet too.

MC

This cassette of Fin De Siècle is very strange. It was released by Epic, a sub-label of Sony for Thailand, and is very different from the UK MC. It could be considered as a bootleg, but - as the CD release that got ‘Sony Music’ engraved on the jewel case - the sealed MC has Sony Music printed on its blister pack, so it must probably be a genuine release.


The sleeve is a 6-pages inlay, and the part constituting the back is like a seventh page which makes the length of the whole box (therefore it is bound to get damaged by the closing system). On one side, we have on the back the same picture as on the back of the CD with the tracklisting by faces, written in a different way than on the CD. On top right, as on the CD, we have the catalogue number, a Setanta logo, the copyrights notes, and also the mentions ‘Made in Thailand’ and ‘Distributed by Epic Thailand Ltd.’ Strangely there is no bar code and no serial number, probably because they do not need to print them in Thailand.
The inlay features one and half pages of credits like on the UK tape, but has minor changes:

• It misses a line break after the title ‘The Band’
• There is not line break between the special guest credits
• The writing credits, publishing notes and arrangement credits are missing
• As on the CD releases, the Katie Puckrik credit for the narration on ‘Generation Sex’ is missing.
• A line break is also missing in the contact note

On the 3 and half last pages is printed the cemetery photo which can be found the centre spread of the CD booklet.


The other side features more photos than the UK release. First we have a full version of the photo of Neil Hannon in a memorial with the ‘Here Comes The Flood’ lyrics. Then the photo of Klimt’s Judith, the photo of Neil Hannon in Vienna’s metro and finally - behind the back and the side of the inlay - the photo originally on the back of the CD booklet.


Finally, the cassette is a different print than the UK release.

• On each side the title is bigger and there is not a ‘•’ between ‘the divine comedy’ and ‘fin de siècle’.
• Under the title the tracklisting of the side is printed which is not the case on the UK cassette.
• The side number (A or B) is to be found on the left. They are also raised letters on bottom left of the tape.
• On the right, there is a Setanta logo, a ‘Sony Music’ logo, and the usual catalogue number (‘SETMC 057’).
• On the bottom we have still the copyright note ‘℗ & © 1998 Setanta Records’ with an additional note ‘All Right Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws’.
• Last, but not least, at the beginning and end of the tape itself, ‘Sony Music’ is printed, which lead to think the tape was manufactured by Sony themselves.