Queens do a triple-10 inch release of Era Vulgaris

Posted by Daniel Stout on Mon 21 Jan 2008 at 10:02 PM

Queens of the Stone Age did an interesting thing with the vinyl release of their most recent album Era Vulgaris. The album is only 47 minutes so it might have in fact fit onto one piece of vinyl, but instead of going the conventional route they released the album on not one but three 10” discs of vinyl.

The package is a unique shape – wider than a typical 10” sleeve and much thicker. It’s a double-folding gatefold sleeve. The front lifts to the left, and then the next layer lifts to the right, so you have a triptych when the album is opened. Each panel holds a 10-inch piece of vinyl in a sleeve.

To get the album to fit on six sides of vinyl, they broke it up to two songs per side of vinyl. Don’t sit for long, because you’re going to be doing a lot of vinyl flipping. You might note that the CD version of the album only contains 11 songs. They did in fact put a vinyl-only bonus track on there after Misfit Love called “Running Joke.”

It’s a cool concept. Not very practical, but it’ll be a unique addition to your collection. If you haven’t heard Era Vulgaris, it’s one of the Queens’ best albums. Very good stuff. This album has a bit more range and variation than some of their albums and is really quite a fine album.

As an aside, I should note that the cover art is a little disconcerting the first time you see the vinyl release. The cover art subtly has the look of a worn album cover – there’s the tell-tale wearing of an album against other records. It’s not that apparent on the CD, but the vinyl made me do a double-take. At first glance it looks like a record that’s been in someone’s collection for the past twenty years rather than a brand new release. Very clever, and nicely done.

Tags: 10-inch · era vulgaris · queens of the stone age · vinyl

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