Running Up That Hill - Japan 7" Single

This was one of the last Japanese 7" singles I ever collected. What made the early ones so interesting and unique was totally lost on the later releases when they began to mimic the UK counterparts.

By this point the picture insert and green Toshiba EMI company sleeve was totally gone and replaced with a full picture sleeve instead. The eye-catching Japanese writing that had always been bold as brass on the front of these sleeves, had become noticeably minimal by this point, even disappearing into the background. I thought that was a real shame because they somehow lost their appeal in the end - at least for me they did.

The later releases still came with a picture insert of sorts. These were now double-sided, but the quality of them had deteriorated into a newsprint type of paper. They're very cheap and easily damaged if you aren't careful.

The record labels are quite plain, and apart from a tiny bit of Japanese text and the distribution information in red, you wouldn't even now this was a Japanese pressing.