Jack White - Lazaretto (Ultra LP) - #175

Jack White - Lazaretto (Ultra LP)

I've always been a vinylhead and prefer this any day over a CD. I won't go over some voodoo regarding analog is better than digital when it comes to sound, this has been discussed to death and then some. To me the haptics of an old-fashioned album makes it my number one choice. Graphics worth talking about (and not the size of a stamp), the reason that you have to set up your turntable, while a CD-player can just be plugged in and you're ready to go, the fact, that you can't listen to an LP in one sitting (literally!), as you'll have to get up and turn the slab of wax onto the other side.

What's more, you're being kept in motion, as there's no such thing as a 80 minute side on an LP (there's 80 minutes plus CDs, but techically, these are not CDs since they don't conform to the technical specifications laid out by Philips and Sony). And I'm not even talking about the fact, that your used CDs are worth less than one EURO on the secondhand market. You'll have to go a long way to find one that's worth anything to a collector.

It's also a fact, that I never could stand Jack White and his music. Don't ask me, the guy is just not my cup of tea. However, when I heard about this here a while back

ULTRA LP FEATURES:
- 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

there was no question I was going to buy the thing, the minute it turns up in one of my local record shops. So, this is my dedication to vinyl, I'm even buying the stuff when I can't stand the artist. And make no mistake, critics who know more about Jack White's music than yours truly, have slashed the musical content and started to wonder wether Mr. White had forgotten to write any decent songs over the gimmickry poured into this release. I don't think this is the point, this release has been thrown onto the market for one reason, and one reason only, to make this a collector's item. And what can I say, the marketing has succeeded, at least with me.

Cheers

Devon