Scarlet's Walk Limited Edition

In addition to the release of Tori's Scarlet's Walk album, Epic is also releasing a limited edition version of Scarlet's Walk, referred to by some sources as "Scarlet's Walk (Special Packaging)", on the same day as the regular album. Look below for full details and scans. In summary, the limited edition contains the album, a bonus DVD with videos and commentary from Tori on it (But NOT the normal a sorta fairytale video we have all seen) and lots of other goodies you can read about below.

As far as we know, the limited edition version is going to be available in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Europe, and Australia. I have heard that the limited edition will be available in stores as well as online through various vendors. I am not sure how many of the limited edition packages will be in the stores or how hard it will be to buy them. Look below for several places online where you can pre-order the limited edition. Several reliable sources tell me that this limited edition will be truly limited, and after a few months will be increasingly harder to find. So be sure to buy yours immediately when it is released!

Details about the Limited Edition Scarlet's Walk

You can see the cover to the limited edition above. It is slightly different from the regular album cover. This cover was first revealed on the HMV.com web site in Canada.

The photo below shows an overall view of the contents of the limited edition. (It comes from www.vanleest.nl. Thanks Ruud van Melick.) Look below for more details scans of all the items!

Many of the details about the limited edition below are from Mike Gray, who has been invaluable in sending me details!

The "box" is not a box, it's merely a slightly large card sleeve which opens at the top in the U.K. and on the side in North America. The "box" is slightly shorter than the UK one. There's no tray inside or anything, just the contents.

The UK catalogue number for the limited edition is 5087829. and the barcode is 099750 878293.

Mike Gray has verified that the U.K. version contains fewer items than the version elsewhere in Europe or North America. This is not a plot against the U.K., but a result of some U.K. chart rulings which remove certain albums from the U.K. chart if they include 'incentives to buy' the item outside of the music. If there's too many, it gets disqualified, so they had to take parts out of the U.K. limited edition to make sure that it counts for the UK chart. You can read more about the these odd U.K. chart rules here on this web page. U.K. fans who want to purchase the U.S. version of the limited edition should consider play.com. (See below.)

I have heard from many sources the French version of the limited edition will contain an extra booklet with the french translation of the lyrics. (See this at fnac.com.)

The charm is not the same in each package. I am not sure how many different kinds of charms there are, but I think it is a large number. People have reported things like a cat, seal, bus, angel, lizard, snake, sun/moon, frog, turtle, bird house and so on. You can see some of them below. The charm is not packaged securely and if you are not careful, it can fall when you open the limited edition.

The stickers are very cute and each one seems to connect to one of the songs, sort of like a game to figure out while studying the lyrics! (Thanks Leda Nannini.)

One thing I must say about this packaging: the detail that went into the texture differences on the paper is really incredible. The clear plastic photo holders seem real, and the pictures on the polaroids are shiny while the rest of the paper is matte. the back is made to look like a real one, too. The cover of the dvd has shiny bits between the pictures (like the film on the edge of an izone) that's a different brilliance than the surface of the photos. it's not a major thing, but it really adds to the authenticity of the piece. The map and stickers feel less like artifacts and more like products. it's strange.

I also wanted to point out that the textures achieved on the packaging for scarlets walk, the shiny and matt stuff for the photos. The disc sleeves and one side of the polaroid have a matt cello glaze, to make them smooth and the photos and photo corners have spot varnishes on them (eek printing terms, basically they are liquids that gets put on over the inks in the printing process - kinda like clear nail varnish).

The limited edition version consists of 2 discs. The first is the normal Scarlet's Walk album CD, which is physically identical to the CD in the normal version of the album. In the limited edition, the CD is housed in a card sleeve. It has the same picture as the front cover against a black background.

The second disc is the bonus DVD. Scarlet's DVD has the following options on the onscreen menu:

1. play all
2. gold dust
3. a sorta fairytale
4. polaroids
5. audio options
6. resume

Scarlet's DVD is in another card sleeve with lots of black and white photos on the front and a post card which says "Scarlet's DVD" on it. The back is plain black and says

1. Gold Dust
2. A Sorta Fairytale
3. Taxi Ride

The disc itself has flowers on it. In North America, the DVD is region 1 encoded and uses the NTSC format. In the U.K., the DVD is region 2 encoded and uses the PAL format. The Menu on the DVD is in black and white and changes constantly while music plays in the background.

The entire DVD runs for 13:32. The big surprise on the DVD is that this is *not* the video for A Sorta Fairytale we've already seen (Tori's head on a leg) and if Gold Dust is to be a single later, this won't be the video for it either. The videos for a sorta fairytale and Gold Dust are just a montage of shots of Tori and other pieces of album artwork, along with commentary by Tori about her travels and how the songs came about. You can turn the commentary off and just watch the video if you like.

The audio commentary on the DVD is only for the songs a sorta fairytale and gold dust... The commentary is a longer version of what was on Scarlet Stories for each of those 2 songs. (You will still need to get the Scarlet Stories bonus disc if you want to hear Tori's commentary on all the other songs.) The option that says "polaroids" shows various polaroid shots of Tori with Taxi Ride in the background. There's no commentary track for Taxi Ride/Polaroids.

"Let me tell you know that it's all absolutely delightful, and the 2 channel PCM audio is fantastic - Tori at a bitrate of 1536 KBit/Sec is a wonderful thing... The entire thing is just a Toriphiles dream - this is all new material and it looks and sounds just fantastic."

We first heard that there would be a new Tori Amos DVD release from Epic Records at the Epic Records web site in late August 2002. We are not sure if the DVD with the limited edition version is the DVD that Epic is referring to, or if there will be some kind of commercial DVD single that one will be able to buy separately from the album. (For those who have never seen a DVD single, they usually contain a video for the A-track, and 2 or 3 audio tracks.) We will see.

Scans of the limited edition and Scarlet's DVD

Click any scan to see larger. Special thanks to Andre Julliay and Mike Gray for these scans! (I also received map scans from Jessika Bolton who also did a wonderful job and I wanted to express a huge appreciation to her, and anyone who also sent me scans.)

The Charms

Check out the Dent's Charm page for details and scans of the charms included with this limited edition version of Scarlet's Walk.

The Polaroid Postcards

DVD Screen Shots

fairytale	fairytale	fairytale
gold dust	gold dust

Pre-order the Limited Edition Scarlet's Walk online!

You can pre-order this limited edition version from several places, including these online vendors:

Since it was revealed that the U.K. version of the limited edition of Scarlet's Walk is missing several items, many U.K. fans now desire to purchase the limited edition from elsewhere in order to get things the charm, stickers, and extra polaroids. Richard tells me that one excellent sources online for U.K. fans to purchase it is play.com. They have got the US version with all the extras for £13.99 (no delivery charge for UK). However, please note that this is the true US version with a Region 1 DVD (not region 2 which is being released in the UK), and many people in the U.K. with region 2 decoders may NOT be able to play the DVD.