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Jack White Unveils June Album ‘Lazaretto’ With ‘High Ball Stepper’

Jack White 'Lazaretto'

Jack White will be headlining no shortage of festivals this summer, and he’ll have a new solo album to bring with him. The former White Stripes frontman will release Lazaretto on June 10 via Third Man Records and Columbia. The first single from the follow-up to 2012’s Blunderbuss will also be called “Lazaretto,” and it’s on the way in April. For now, feast your eyes and ears on the blazing, spaghetti Western-ready instrumental “High Ball Stepper,” which you can hear above while watching its accompanying video.

A version of Lazaretto will also be available through Third Man’s Vault subscription series. Vault Package #20 will be the only limited edition of the album available, according to the label’s site. ” Pressed on split-color blue-and-white vinyl and coupled with exclusive album art, this alternate presentation of the album is both insightful and deserving,” Third Man writes. “Also exclusive to the Vault is a fold-out poster accompanying the album, featuring a classic National Archives photo that serves as a recurrent image throughout the album art.” Third Man pressed up multiple alternate versions of Blunderbuss, but the label pledges that won’t be the case this time.

The Vault version comes with a few other exclusive items. One is a seven-inch that features solo demos of Lazaretto tracks “Alone in My Home” and “Entitlement,” both recorded in Mexico; they’ll be pressed to blue vinyl. The package also includes a 40-page hard-bound book of Lazaretto lyrics, musical notations, photos, and art. The set also includes “a linen, letter-pressed postcard with the same eye-popping color separations as evidenced in classic chromatic postcards popular in the first half of the 20th century. Stamps not included.” Subscriptions are availabe through April 30.

Around the start of this year, White said he was almost done working on a new album. If it’s in keeping with the material he described to Rolling Stone in February 2013, the set promises to be eclectic: “Like you heard in Blunderbuss, there’s many different styles there,” he said. Recently divorced, White has also been busy with the revived Dead Weather. And Neil Young has confirmed White plays on two songs that will appear on Young’s upcoming album, A Letter Home.