On Record Store Day 2014 Jack White at his Third Man Records’ in
Nashville Tennessee he did something no one else has done and in the process
set a Guinness World Record for the World’sFastest Released Record as well as playing a private concert. My cousin and
her husband were some of the lucky few in attendance for the madness that day.
They later told me that being in the presence of a Jack White performance is
knowing you are witnessing something special just from the energy in the room.
I have personally been a huge fan of Jack White for a long, long
time. I love all of the White Stripes albums as well as his numerous side
projects like The Raconteurs & The Dead Weather so when his first solo
album Blunderbuss was released I
simply couldn’t get enough of it! When Lazaretto
was announced I knew the wait was going to be a long one, so when the day it
finally dropped I ordered my copy from Third Man Records!
It would be a crime if I didn’t mention all of the attention to
detail taken into account with this physical manifestation of this album as
well including all of the following:
- 180 gram vinyl
- 2 vinyl-only hidden
tracks hidden beneath the center labels
- 1 hidden track plays at 78 RPM, one plays at 45 RPM, making
this a 3-speed record
- Side A plays from the inside out
- Dual-groove technology: plays an electric or acoustic intro
for “Just One Drink” depending on where needle is dropped. The grooves meet for
the body of the song.
- Matte finish on Side B, giving the appearance of an un-played
78 RPM record
- Both sides end with locked grooves
- Vinyl pressed in seldom-used flat-edged format
- Dead wax area on Side A contains a hand-etched hologram by
Tristan Duke of Infinity Light Science, the first of its kind on a vinyl record
- Absolutely zero compression used during recording, mixing and
mastering
- Different running order from the CD/digital version
- LP utilizes some mixes different from those used on CD and
digital version
Since we had been streaming the album via the free iTunes app
for a few weeks we already knew how absolutely amazing each and every song
crafted was. The biggest and most complimentary thing I can say is that if you loved Blunderbuss, (which clearly I did) Lazaretto literally picks right up where it left off and explodes
into something even better. Jack White really is one of the most unique and
talented artists of our time so if you haven’t picked up your copy you need to get on that right away!
