The White Stripes' modern classic Elephant is continuing to get the vinyl treatment in the wake of its ten-year anniversary. The album was rereleased for Record Store Day back in April featuring some new colors (both on the cover and the 12"), and now Third Man Records is releasing all of the album's singles as part of its Vault series.
Elephant resulted in four singles: "The Hardest Button to Button," "There's No Home For You Here," "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself," and of course, "Seven Nation Army." Jack White, being a fan of the old-fashioned way of doing things, made sure 7" copies were available, and not just digital downloads. The new collection packages the four singles together, just in case you missed out on them a decade ago.
The tracklist remains the same for each single, as far as we can tell. There's no word on whether the "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" will be the studio version, or the BBC session that was included on the original 7" in 2003. The B-sides, a collection of tracks from performers other than The White Stripes, will be featured as well.
More exciting to us vinyl junkies who put too much emphasis on colors versus the music itself (guilty!) is the new schemes and packaging. All four 7"s will feature "splatter" style colors on clear vinyl: "Seven Nation Army" will be black, "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself" will be red, and "The Hardest Button to Button" will go white. Most exciting is "There's No Home For You Here," which will feature all three colors splashed together, as well as all new single art. The original single just got a plain cover, but the new art features a circus elephant in a typical White Stripes color scheme.
Granted, it ain't exactly cheap. The whole package comes out to $60, but it might be a worthwhile investment for White Stripes fans. And no, you're not going to find the original versions on Ebay a lower price...we checked.
