Jack White has announced plans to release a version of his upcoming Lazaretto album in an incredibly unique vinyl edition, dubbed the Ultra LP, which contains a bunch of “special features” sure to stir the passion of record fetishism in even the most burned out of collectors.
As White and Ben Blackwell of Third Man Records explain in the video below, the Lazaretto Ultra LP will run at three speeds. This is to accommodate two hidden tracks situated under the labels on the record, with one playing at 78 rpm and one at 45 rpm. Both of which can be played with the needle ON the label. White and Blackwell say it’s possibly the first ever three-speed LP. “Of course, there’s no knowing unless you go through every record ever made,” deadpans White.
The album includes “dual-groove technology” which means you hear alternate versions of the album depending on where you drop the needle. The intro for the song Just One Drink, for example, is either acoustic or electric, depending on where you start the needle, and they eventually merge into a single track.
“While we were mixing the record I started to get ideas about the design of the LP and what we could do differently that hadn’t been done before,” says White, before explaining how Side A of the record plays from the inside out, until it hits what he believes is the first ever locked groove on the outside edge of the LP, that loops over and over.
One of the most unique and surely unexpected features of the record, is its aesthetics. Explains White, if listeners look at the dead wax area of Side A from a certain angle they’ll be able to see a hand-etched floating hologram of a spinning angel, fitting with those on the Lazaretto cover art, created by Tristan Duke of Infinity Light Science.
The special edition vinyl will also feature a completely different track sequence from the digital or CD version, as well as alternate mixes of some cuts. Check below for the full list of details.
Lazaretto will be unleashed in Australia on 6th June, though it’s not yet known if Australians will be able to order the Ultra LP, nor how much it will cost if we can. Fans who pre-ordered the album through the Third Man Vault will also get a version containing all the Ultra LP features.
Watch: The Lazaretto Ultra LP
