Music

6 bizarre features of Jack White's new vinyl

by Tyler Munro

Because he’s Jack White, you’d be right to assume the special edition of his new record would come with a gimmick or two. But one step up from his record setting single, the vinyl Lazaretto comes with not one, not two, but no less than ten unique gimmicks. Billed as an Ultra LP, the album will obviously be pressed on 180 grams, but that standard of quality is the tip of the iceberg. It’s not so far intense as pressing a record with liquid in it, but these features are far from the norm. Let’s explain some of the more interesting ones:

 

Side A plays from the inside out

Lazaretto’s first sound works its way out backwards. You won’t need a reverse function on your turntable to play it, but some of the more automated devices might run into trouble here.

 

Both sides end with a locked groove

Locked grooves are a standard in vinyl, but when one side of your album plays inside out, it becomes less about keeping the stylus off the label than keeping it on the record itself. Lazaretto promises its A Side is special because its outermost groove locks in with looping sound, and while Jack White swears he’s the first to do it—he’s not—it’s an interesting feature nonetheless.

 

2 vinyl-only hidden tracks hidden beneath the center labels… that run at different speeds

As is essentially the standard, Lazaretto runs at 33 RPM. Except for when it doesn’t. Like he did with Dead Weather, Jack White has hidden a song under the label of each side of the album, with the catch of course being that Side B’s bonus track plays at 45RPM. More troubling is Side A’s, which runs at a much quicker 78RPM. While that makes the album a three-speed, it also alienates much of the turntable buying population, since many belt-driven or newer direct drive tables aren’t equipped to play that fast. And while playing songs through the label likely won’t damage your stylus—diamond through paper might actually clean it—it also won’t sound great.

 

Dual-groove technology

Dual-groove technology is exactly what it sounds like. Depending on where the needle hits, “Just One Drink” will start with either an acoustic or electric intro before they meet in the middle to finish out the song.

 

Side A also has a hand-etched hologram

This is at once maybe the coolest and least necessary thing Lazaretto has going for it: In Side A’s dead wax, the unused bits nearest the label, there’s a floating hologram of an angel designed by artist Tristan Duke of Infinity Light Science. You’ll have to look at it from the right angle to see it right, but hell this is cool.

 

Uncompressed mastering

The Ultra LP comes with different track sequencing than the CD version as well as some different mixes of songs, but most impressive is its uncompressed mastering, which in shorter detail means the vinyl was processed and pressed from lossless, analog audio rather than ported over from digital files. It’s a hugely tedious endeavour by Third Man, but more than anything a stance against trends like the Loudness Wars. Most won’t notice the difference, but they should go in appreciating it.

And that’s not all, actually. Lazaretto has some unique visual aesthetics to it, too, like Side B’s completely matte finish, the record’s flat edges and human piss used to paint the album art. Sure, that we made that last one up, but with White, would it surprise you if we didn’t?

Lazaretto is out June 10th. Pre-order the Ultra LP at Third Man’s store and, if you’re still lost, watch the label’s run through of its features above.