Ceremony - Zoo

This post is a long time coming. I really should have been on top of this months ago considering that pre-orders went up early in the new year. I guess I was just waiting for all the pieces to fall in place. It took a while but I'm just glad I got there.
I am not going to review the album or try to describe the new sound Ceremony have gone in. I did that already with the posts I did on the Hysteria 7" and Adult 7"s.

Pre-orders for the new album went up while I was on vacation in January. I would break away from the family once a day to use the hotel business computer where people would check flights or make bookings and I would check message boards and label sites. I caught more than a couple dirty looks for my frivolous browsing. Well fuck them, I got records to buy!
Once pre-orders went up, the only information on the Matador site was that there would be a limited color version, first come first serve. As it turned out, the pre-order color was clear red. There were 300 pressed.

For a while it seemed that there would just be the one color and standard black vinyl. Then on some message board everyone found out there would be more color vinyl coming.

The next rarest color was clear blue. This was the record release/tour version that was rumored to have sold all 300 out on the first night. As it turned out that was not true at all as Mike was able to grab me a copy when he saw them in Boston a month or so ago. What is so impressive is that he gave me the color version and kept the black for himself. That my friends is one swell guy. Thanks again Mike!

Clear green was the next color available and this was only available at independent record stores. I was a little worried that since there were only 500 pressed, not many if any would end up in Canada. My worries were unfounded as I can still find the green ones around town.

Finally is good old black vinyl or I like to call it, the play copy. I'm not sure where I heard it but there might be as many as 1900 on black. I found this one in a local indie record store that I guess wasn't cool enough to make the cut for green vinyl. Funny enough, this was the last one for me to get and hardest to track down.

All the versions come with this huge 24" x 24" foldout insert/lyric sheet. Very cool and complete overkill.

If anyone knows if there was a special record release show cover or any other variation out there, let me know. I always like to try to collect everything I can from Ceremony. I should find a cheaper hobby.