Third Man to reissue first three White Stripes albums ... 'definitive' versions

The first three White Stripes albums, 1999's The White Stripes, 2000's De Stijl and 2001's White Blood Cells are getting the full-on audiophile treatment, remastered for the first time in a total analog mastering chain from the first generation master tapes. Each will be pressed on heavy, 180-gram vinyl while the "heavy board" jacket will see art that's carefully hand attached. All three will be available Tuesday, Nov. 30 on black vinyl from the Third Man online store.  Specialty split-color issues will be available  at the actual Third Man storefront in Nashville, Tenn. This is from the Third Man site: Out-of-print in North America since 2005, the utmost care was taken in presenting these records in the best way possible. We started by mastering each LP from the original analog master tapes, the first time this process had been used for any of these titles. While extremely labor-intensive, this method ensured that the material was never converted into a digital signal. The result is an audio quality that stiffens the hairs on the back of your neck.

We pressed each record on 180-gram vinyl, again, the first time any of these three albums have been afforded this superior vinyl weight.

For artwork, we started from scratch and went back and tracked down all the source material, working from the original photographic prints to provide the crispest versions possible of these album covers.

From there, we printed the artwork on the deluxe old-style, tip-on sleeves from the wonderful folks at Stoughton Printing in California. This process involves printing the artwork on a sheet of paper (a slick) which is then folded over and hand-glued to a heavy board blank jacket. The difference in the final product of a tip-on sleeve as opposed to a regular, direct-to-board sleeve is akin to the difference between hardcover and paperback books.

Also, for the first time ever, each record comes with a coupon for MP3 downloads of the entire album.

All these factors together makes these versions of The White Stripes, De Stijl and White Blood Cells the DEFINITIVE editions of these albums. These are the versions The White Stripes want people to have for posterity.

And to tickle the collectors, we pressed limited numbers of each title on split-color red and white vinyl. All three albums will be available on black vinyl for purchase from our online store starting on November 30th. The split-color and black vinyl of The White Stripes self titled LP will be available for purchase on November 30th in our Third Man Records store front, with the split-color and black vinyl of De Stijl and White Blood Cells to follow on December 7th and December 14th, respectively.