Photo: Artwork
Yesterday, a hidden facet to David Bowie’s parting gift, Blackstar, revealed itself quite accidentally. If an Imgur user hadn’t accidentally left his vinyl sleeve in a pool of sunlight, it might have taken us years to figure out that it erupts into glittering starlight when exposed to the sun. “Leaving us surprises even now,” said Bowie’s son, Duncan Jones, on Twitter.
The following records didn’t all keep their unique quality a secret - it’s quite hard, after all, to keep hidden the fact that your vinyl is made of edible chocolate. But they all have one thing in common - taking joy in the sheer, aimless pleasure of creating something unique.
Here’s nine records with some of the best creative gimmicks.
Ty Segall - Mr. Face:
The singer’s EP comes with two 7” records, which double as 3D glasses. If you hold them up to your eyes, you’ll look really foolish, but you’ll also be able to see the EP’s 3D artwork.
Breakbot - By Your Side:
The band printed 120 copies of their album in dark chocolate, which can actually be played on a record player. Granted, it’ll only last a few plays - possible fewer if you’re hungry - but it’s pretty great while it lasts.
Shout Out Louds - Blue Ice:
This one’s even more fleeting than the chocolate vinyl - it’s made of ice. A select few were sent a bottle of water, a mould and a set of instructions, and instructed to leave it in their freezer for six hours to make a solid, playable ice record.
Flaming Lips - Heavy Fwends:
Wayne Coyne collected the blood (with their consent, we assume) of a number of collaborators featured on their Record Store Day album - including Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Kesha and Nick Cave - and pressed it into ten vinyl copies… which cost a whopping $2,500 each.
Nik Colk Void - Gold E
The 7” single came with a sleeve that’s a playable replica of the record itself. It’s made of polyurethane plastic, which deteriorates over time, changing the sound of the record. "Polyurethane plastic starts life as a result of a chemical reaction of two liquids,” said Colk, "so it will naturally start to decay. I'm talking years, but any slight change will make a huge difference to the width, depth of the grooves, and air pockets will increase in size, drastically changing the sound.”
Led Zeppelin - In Through The Out Door:
The album’s outer sleeve looks like a brown paper bag, while its inner sleeve features black and white line drawings. So far, so boring, right? Well, not quite. If you wash the inner sleeve with water, you unleash the hidden water-colour effect, and the line drawing becomes multi-coloured. There were no instructions on the vinyl, which meant - like with Bowie’s Blackstar - you had to stumble upon it by accident. Spilling a drink has never been so rewarding.
Jack White - Lazaretto:
There’s about sixteen different gimmicks to this vinyl, each more impressive than the next. Surely the best, though, is the hand-etched hologram on Side A - the first of its kind on a vinyl record - that shows dancing angels.
Monty Python - The Monty Python Matching Tie And Handkerchief:
The album’s original LP version was made with two concentric grooves on its second side, meaning two completely different sets of songs were played depending on where the needle landed. It came without a track listing, just to confuse fans further.
Ghostbusters 30th anniversary edition soundtrack
To celebrate 30 years of the cult film, Legacy Records re-issued its soundtrack on vinyl that was not only glow-in-the-dark, it was also marshmallow scented - in homage to the film’s villain, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. The inner jacket of the gatefold also felt like actual marshmallow.
