Double Album - Sesquialbum

Sesquialbum

There are only a few examples of a sesquialbum (i.e. one and a half records). Johnny Winter released what would be the first three-sided rock album, Second Winter, on two 12-inch discs, with the flip side of the second disc being blank. In 1975, jazz artist Rahsaan Roland Kirk released The Case of the 3 Sided Dream in Audio Color which apparently had only three sides. However, on closer inspection, there were a small number of grooves pressed on side four with a few short "hidden" conversation snippets (the CD reissue includes them all). A 1976 live concert recording by Keith Jarrett and his quartet was released as Eyes of the Heart by ECM Records in 1979, featuring three tracks covering three sides of the original double album, with the fourth left blank. Joe Jackson's 1986 release Big World and Pavement's Wowee Zowee are other examples. The 1992 Julian Cope album Jehovakill, contained three sides or "phases," with a laser-etched fourth side which was unplayable. In 1982, Todd Rundgren and his band released the self-titled album Utopia featuring one full LP of 10 songs and a second 12-inch disc with five bonus tracks and the same five tracks on the flip side. The Monty Python album Matching Tie and Handkerchief was originally issued with two concentric grooves with different programs on the second side (this was done for comedic rather than practical reasons). Elvis Costello and The Clash (amongst other 1980s acts) would sometimes release early pressings of their albums with extra material on a 45 rpm single. Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life was released as two LPs and a 45rpm 7" disc. In 2005, The Mars Volta released their album Frances the Mute, on which the vinyl pressing spans five sides of vinyl; the sixth is an etching of tree roots. In 1994, the Norwegian band Motorpsycho released their album Timothy's Monster, in a vinyl edition containing three LPs: five sides with music, and a sixth side with a drawing/etching. They used the same technique for Motorpsycho presents The International Tussler Society and Heavy Metal Fruit (four sides of vinyl, three with music and one with a drawing/etching). The Sunlandic Twins by Of Montreal follows this same format (although the third side is officially called a "bonus EP").