Since we posted about the new Paul McCartney solo releaseThe Boys of Dungeon Lane there’s been some developments, mostly to do with new variations and vinyl colours being added.
As we did for McCartney IIIand it’s sibling McCartney III Imagined, we’ve started a chart showing all the known variations so far to help you keep up. We’ll add to this if any more come down the pipeline (which, given McCartney’s track record, is very likely).
(Click on the image to see a larger version)
As of today a new McCartney and UME Store exclusive with 180g black vinyl, gatefold blind-embossed cover artwork, full collage interior spread, and a 12-page lyric booklet has been added to the ever-growing list. There’s now also a cassette with a fold-out collage print.
Gotta admit, the gatefold collage looks great. It is screen‑printed and made from over 100 archive images, including previously unseen photography from Paul’s personal archive.:
Along with the different cover art and vinyl colour variations, one other difficult thing emerging for the absolute completists (who must have everything in every permutation) is the different lyric cards to be included with some of the vinyl and some of the CDs.
So far there are 6 different cards: 3 “collage” lyric cards, and 3 “portrait” lyric cards.
In the green vinyl exclusive to the McCartney and Universal Music stores it is a green/purple collage card, while in the red vinyl – exclusive to larger chain stores – the card is an orange/red/blue colour with different images. It is also orange/red/blue in the Target exclusive CD, but it depicts a different collage of faces.
Then, in those releases that come with a black and white portrait of Paul, there seem to be 3 different photos in use. One for the gold vinyl (B&N, and possibly Rough Trade UK – but this is still to be confirmed); one for the green cover CD (a McCartney Store/Universal Music exclusive), and a third variation for the Walmart exclusive CD. We’ve tried to show these on the chart, but here they are side-by-side for comparison.
We’ll update this variations chart if and when any more differences emerge.
Just when you thought you’d made it through to release date without any other variations of this one….
A mere three days before the physical release (at last!) of Paul McCartney’sMcCartney III Imagined, Universal Music has gone and thrown one more colour variant into the mix: Violet Vinyl.
This is “exclusive” to the official McCartney stores in the US, in the UK, and also in France.
And it seems to be available in a couple of the official UMe stores too. We found it for sale in the German Bravado store for example.
It brings to ten the number of different coloured vinyl you can buy. It’s a nice round number.
It’ll be nice to finally get this as a physical release. The digital version came out on April 16, so it has been a long wait.
So, here’s the lay of the land visually as far as all the known variants that will be shipped this Friday, July 23. (Click on the image below to enlarge):
Oh boy. Just when you thought that 9 vinyl colour variations, plus 2 CD cover variations – and a cassette – were enough, the folks at MPL and Capitol have devised even more ways to get you to buy the forthcoming McCartney III album – due out December 11.
If you are a collector of rare audio then hidden in amongst what, at first glance, looks like a merchandising onslaught are four bonus “secret demo” tracks. But to get them you have to buy four more copies of the main McCartney III CD. And as you’ll see there are LOTS of permutations….
It’s all a bit confusing. We’ll try to unpack it for you starting with what is available on the official US McCartney Store site (because it’s different on the UK McCartney store site).
First thing to get clear in your head are the colours: white, red, blue and yellow.
For example, on the US store you can buy a box containing a McCartney III white cover, store-exclusive mini-jacket CD (that includes one secret bonus demo track unique to that white cover CD), plus one of the following: a white McCartney III dice set in a pouch; a white McCartney III t-shirt; a white McCartney III cap; or a white McCartney III face mask.
These box sets are obviously custom printed, but also seem to be specially made to hold the CD too. If you look closely there is a black cardboard slot inside that surrounds the CD. It’s got an opening on the right hand side to get your finger in to neatly lift out the cover: If you prefer red you can buy a box containing a McCartney III red cover, store-exclusive mini-jacket CD (that includes one secret bonus demo track unique to that red cover CD), plus one of the following: a red McCartney III cap; a red McCartney III dice set in a pouch; a red McCartney III face mask; or a red McCartney III t-shirt.
And so on for the blue and yellow boxed CDs and merch.
Note however that each colour has a different McCartney III logo. (The pouch and logo for the dice sets remain the same though. Click on the image below for a larger version):
So, that means for the extremely keen collector of merchandise and audio you’d have to buy 16 boxes to get absolutely every variation – but, you still only end up with the same 4 “secret bonus demo tracks”.
Staying on the US site, if audio is your main thing, for US$7.33 you can purchase separately each of the four secret demo edition store-exclusives as mini-jacket CDs. These are the same as those in the merch-related box sets above. We believe (but it’s not definitive at this point) that the CDs contain the standard CD track listing, plus one unique demo for each colour. Here’s the yellow example. As you can see it comes in a simple card sleeve cover only – no booklet, etc:Or, for US$14.33, you can purchase separately each of the four secret demo colour-coded editions in what is described as a “Deluxe Edition” softpak CD cover. These we presume are similar to the standard retail CD packaging and will come with a gatefold and booklet. The yellow example is shown below and this would also contain the standard CD tracklisting plus the unique “yellow” secret bonus demo track:
So, for the absolute US completist they’d also have to buy four more copies of this CD to have every possible permutation.
It’s interesting that no details have been given about the titles of the four demo tracks. I guess that’s why they are secret!
Meanwhile, over at the UK McCartney store, the offer is slightly different. There, if you purchace one of the four coloured merchandise boxes on offer, you get all the merchandise (plus your CD colour of choice) in one box.
For example, if you order the white box it will bundle together the white cover, store-exclusive mini-jacket CD (including the “white cover” secret bonus demo track), the white dice set, white t-shirt, white cap, and white McCartney III face mask:
On fan blogs and forums fans are debating this new announcement, not only trying to nut out all the confusing variations but also asking the question why? There are now 10 CD variations. Why so many permutations? And why make us buy multiple copies of the CD to add these four tracks of bonus materials to our collections?
One astute observer probably has it correct: “The whole reason for this is to juice the first-week sales of the ALBUM. Selling a CD single won’t do that. Between the four CD versions here, the green one, the regular one and the black/white/red/green/cokebottle/[blue]/pink vinyl versions (not even counting the yellow one, because hardly anyone got it), some members here will likely have purchased 5-10 copies of this EACH! Hello, Billboard…”
It’s not so much about money (though no doubt that plays a factor) – it’s about trying to get a Number 1 album on the charts the first week the record goes on sale.
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