In case you haven’t heard yet, Arcade Fire will be releasing their third album, The Suburbs (scheduled for release on August 2 in Europe and August 3 in the US), with eight different covers.
Okay, maybe you think it’s way cool or something stupid like that, but the only other album that I can remember with multiple covers off the top of my head was Korn’s Issues, and it was a dumb idea then. I can totally imagine the marketing guys going ape shit about the concept: “That’s a great idea, guys! We can make eight album covers and then all the stupid fans will be so tempted to buy all eight that they totally will buy all eight covers! We’ll increase our sales by 800%!”
“I got the cover where Win and Regine are smiling!”
“Oh, yeah? Well, I got the cover where Win and Regine are kissing!”
“OH YEAH? Well, I got the cover where Win and Regine are dancing so my album is way better!”
Anyone who buys this album more than once, with the intent of collecting the covers, is a moron and doesn’t realize that this is a stupid idea. That said, editor-in-chief Mr P and news editor Squeo just went halfsies on a set of eight.
• Arcade Fire: http://www.arcadefire.com
• Merge: http://www.mergerecords.com