White Stripes fans are rejoicing today (Jan. 9) with the news that Jack White‘s Third Man Records will release a 20th anniversary edition of the rock duo’s beloved album Elephant as part of its long-running Vault subscription program. Fans have until Jan. 31 to sign up through Third Man’s website.
Vault Package #55 will comprise a new mono remix of the original album on red and white vinyl, a red glitter 7-inch single featuring two mixes of the demo for “Hypnotize” and the original, first-take version of “You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket,” a DVD with previously unreleased footage from the time, and a 28-page booklet loaded with rare photos.
As the new mono mix was made directly from the original master tapes, White and engineer Bill Skibbe discovered a number of “little surprises and treasures” therein, including an extra four bars at the end of “Seven Nation Army,” a lyric that was later edited out of “Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine,” and fly-on-the-wall studio chatter.
The DVD boasts footage of Jack and Meg White recording “It’s True That We Love One Another” with Holly Golightly, two different live performances at Tokyo’s Shibuya Ax in October 2003 (including a cover of the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog”), a Japanese interview, and behind-the-scenes clips of the Stripes filming the video for “The Hardest Button to Button.”
The idea here isn’t to try and completely reimagine the Elephant album,” reads a message on the Third Man site. “We know how near and dear it is to all of the White Stripes fans out there. The goal is to harken back to other similar experiments (like our first-ever Vault package, Icky Thump mono) while shedding light on the nuance and craft contained both in the performance and the mix of this album.”
Having released two distinct albums in 2022 and toured extensively in support of them, Jack White will be back on the road Friday for a show at Los Angeles’ Belasco Theater as a warmup for his appearance the next night at iHeartRadio ALTer EGO concert. He’ll also perform on Feb. 24 at the Palm Tree Festival in Aspen, Colo.
