For those who don’t collect vinyl, why anyone would buy a full LP when you could stream the whole thing online may seem like a mystery. But the vinyl version of White’s latest album, Lazaretto, makes a case for the continued value of physical albums. For starters, one side of the album plays inside out (listeners drop the needle near the center instead of on the outside), but that’s about the most normal thing about it. The album features a hand-etched hologram in the center; a song that plays either acoustic or electric depending on where you drop the needle; and a vinyl-only track hidden under the center label. The extra effort turned out to be worth it: Lazaretto sold 40,000 copies in its first week—the most since SoundScan started keeping track of vinyl sales in 1991.
