Vinyl ReviewsBack to mono? Mobile Fidelity’s Mono Bob Dylan Series

Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper - A Star Is Born

… songs are credited to Lady Gaga and Cooper as well as Lukas Nelson, Jason Isbell, and a handful of other collaborators. The music begins with Cooper’s country rock and, as his star falls, the soundtrack focuses more on Lady Gaga’s jazzy disco-infused diva pop. Her turns are the reason for repeat listening. Cooper’s singing exceeds expectations, but Lady Gaga’s songs make it all worthwhile.

The Beatles - Abbey Road

The vinyl, pressed in Germany, looks beautiful, heavy, and flat. Unfortunately, the sound doesn’t measure up. “Come Together” is all about timing, and the digital remaster destroys the sense of drive, with the bass sounding a bit flabby and disconnected. Or, compare the harmony of Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison on “Because,” which features gorgeous depth and bloom on the original U.K. Those elements die here.

Sarah Vaughan - After Hours With Sarah Vaughn

… the recording shows off just how good mono recording technology, and Columbia’s version of that technology, happened to be in the late 1940s. Vaughan’s vocal delivery is well captured and the (uncredited) band fills a wide space around her.

Alice Cooper - Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits

riday Music’s reissue sucks much of the life out of the presentation, with instruments sounding bleached and two-dimensional. The liner notes supply no information about how the reissue was mastered.

Grateful Dead - American Beauty

The Grateful Dead remains one of those bands people tend to either love or dislike—few music lovers are indifferent. Having spent the last 30 years living in the heart of Dead country in Marin County, California, I know true fans largely recoil at the idea of elevating a studio album over any number of extended Dick’s Picks jams. American Beauty is the Dead album, however, I’d carry out of a fire.

The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East

Mobile Fidelity’s RTI-pressed set is dead quiet and dispenses with the record-changer song order. Bass and dynamics are improved, but the biggest upgrade pertains to the significantly extended high end, which immensely adds to the impact of the guitars and percussion.

John Coltrane - Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album

They recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio for Impulse! during the prime of Coltrane’s recording career—one day before the sessions for John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, a year and nine months before A Love Supreme, and a year before Crescent. Van Gelder captured the band in stereo, and after the sessions, he put the tape on the shelf and nobody knows what happened to it since … The fare on this collection may have gotten “lost,” as the album title implies, or it may have seemed too transitional for Coltrane’s tastes—i.e., not quite challenging enough for his rapidly developing vision. We’ll never know, yet it stands as music of the highest order. It’s hard to find its equal—particularly compared to what almost anyone else was doing in 1963.

Doug MacLeod - Break The Chain

Recorded live to a half-speed mastering deck at Skywalker Sound in Marin County by Engineer Keith O. Johnson, the album sounds stunning. Instruments and vocal deliveries are well placed in space and emerge from a quiet backdrop that defines blackness. On the acoustic-based numbers, when MacLeod takes a breath, if you hear anything in the background, it’s almost certainly noise from the phono section of your stereo. The aural trait makes the excellent dynamic range of the recording seem all the more potent.

Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms

Brothers in Arms was digitally recorded on a Sony 24-track digital tape machine. Nonetheless, the sound quality overcame its digital roots. The original LP features such good sound you’d be forgiven for never expecting it to be bettered.

Ry Cooder - Chicken Skin Music

Many years ago, Mobile Fidelity reissued Cooder’s Jazz and, after it sold out, prices on the used market skyrocketed. Chicken Skin Music remains a superior album with equally superb sound. The current reissue is limited to 3,000 copies. Wait at your own risk.

Cécile McLorin Salvant - Dreams and Daggers

While her first two Mack Avenue efforts stand among the best jazz releases of their respective years, you need to reach back decades for anything as original and captivating as Dreams and Daggers.

Dusty Springfield - Dusty In Memphis

Fail to take it seriously at your own risk. Dusty in Memphis was, and remains, one of the great albums of the classic-rock era. Dusty Springfield was keeping up with the fast-moving times of 1968—she had a string of hits in the U.K. and U.S. unrivaled by any other female singer—but songs like “You Don’t Own Me” sounded old-fashioned by the late 60s.

Miles Davis - E.S.P.

Against these odds, Mobile Fidelity has produced a brilliant reissue that edges out the Impex edition with better dynamic range (more bite in the horns), a little more sparkle in the drum kit, and slightly enhanced depth of image.

Jacintha - Fire & Rain

Compare this 45 RPM set to most any other album on vinylreviews.com with a sound rating of five and add another point—the sonics are literally off-the-charts good. It was recorded at the Henson Recording Studio, the former A & M Studios in Los Angeles where Joni Mitchell recorded Blue. Yet Fire & Rain far exceeds the recording quality of Mitchell’s iconic record—and, I’d venture to say, surpasses the sonics of any recording of a female vocalist not issued by Groove Note. Take that, Diana Krall.

Freddie Hubbard - First Light

If you are an aficionado of jazz LPs, your collection likely includes a healthy dose of Freddie Hubbard vinyl. For starters, Hubbard has stuck around longer than many other great trumpet players and amassed a healthy stockpile of recordings. Others were not so lucky. Clifford Brown died in an auto accident at the age of 25. Lee Morgan was shot to death at 33. Fats Navarro expired at 26. Chet Baker held on to the ripe old age of 58, when he fell out of a window.

Bob Seger - Greatest Hits

Nonetheless, the vinyl remains remarkably consistent in terms of intent—plenty of punch and little if any compression. While not great-sounding, the record delivers a very good presentation of the material at hand.

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (Mono)

Mobile Fidelity’s version grants slightly greater stage width but somewhat collapses the depth. The reissue also touts more bass weight and enjoys more dynamic punch. Consequently, it makes the original LP sound almost delicate.

Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy

Led Zeppelin’s fifth studio album was released in March 1973 after a hiatus of 16 months, an eternity for the band and anxious fans. The set (for the first time) contains only original material, and the production reflects the group’s emphasis on layering sound more than ever before. While better than the albums that followed, it lacks the coherence and excitement of the quartet’s first four efforts.

John Lennon - Imagine: The Ultimate Mixes

Leaving aside the question of whether you may or may not think the remix violates the artist’s vision, the stripped-down recording sounds very, very good. Lennon’s voice has real body and texture, and the instrumental parts spread out wide over a nicely formed stage.

MC5 - Kick Out The Jams

If you have an original in good shape, there’s no need to spring for the reissue. If you don’t, grab the reissue. Rhino also packaged the LP as part of its Total Assault 3-LP box set as a red-vinyl pressing (the other two discs are white and blue, respectively). It touts the same mastering as the standard Rhino issue, except it comes pressed on lighter-weight red vinyl and the high-quality heavy board cover used for the individual release is replaced by lightweight card stock.

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

For now, when I want a close listen to Kind of Blue, I’ll leave my original on the shelf and queue up the Mobile Fidelity.

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I

The “New Yardbirds”, as they briefly presented themselves, came roaring out of the box with a monster hit called Led Zeppelin I. Side one shakes you upside the behind like few LPs had done at the time and alone ensures the work’s classic status. Other than Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin albums, no LP issued in the late 1960s seemed quite so rebellious, so loud, and so utterly wild.

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II

It was 1969 and Led Zeppelin was changing the rules. Sure, the Rolling Stones had covered the blues before, but their early albums shoot a slight, sly sideways wink whereas Led Zeppelin II combines brutal, in-your-face proto-metal instrumental delivery with raunchy lyrics cut and pasted from the best blues singers dating back a generation and two.

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III

Led Zeppelin III is an anomaly—an undisputed classic that lacks the respect of the two other classics between which it’s sandwiched. The band isn’t the first musical genius to have merely great music stuck amidst mega-hits. Beethoven’s odd-numbered symphonies (Nos. 3, 5, 7, and 9) remain some of the greatest pieces composed, while his even-numbered lot is merely great. Caught betwixt Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin IV, Led Zeppelin III often gets overlooked as a work simply not up to the group’s expected level of illustriousness.

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

Led Zeppelin’s peak: How else do you describe an LP on which side one opens with “Black Dog” and closes with “Stairway to Heaven”? In between resides “Rock and Roll” (a song that became a concert staple, and for good reason) and “The Battle of Evermore,” one of the band’s most beautiful creations. Led Zeppelin IV is not just Led Zeppelin’s finest album but one of rock’s all-time best LPs. The group’s movement towards acoustic and British folk reaches its apex here, and this considering the quartet had only started releasing albums two years prior.

The Beatles - Let It Be

Plentiful and cheap, most any U.K. or U.S. original will sound superior to Apple’s 2012 version, which should be avoided.

George Harrison - Living in the Material World

Much of sonic magic gets lost in the reissue. The guitar sound that explodes off the original vinyl with gorgeous bloom instead plods here. When Harrison sings “give me life” in the opening track, the reissue seems to be speaking to the remastering that sucks the movement out of the music, as if everything has been slowed down. The beautifully pressed heavy vinyl is quiet and flat, but I can’t recommend a dull version that gives me the “sue me, sue you blues.”

Ruth Brown - Miss Rhythm

Ruth Brown was a rhythm-and-blues trailblazer with a rich, expressive voice known to knock down some pretty racy lyrics. Nicknamed the Queen of R&B, she recorded her biggest sides for Atlantic Records, itself sometimes called the “House That Ruth Built.”

The Beatles - Mono Masters

… even if you own every LP issued by the Beatles, Mono Masters remains indispensable. The original U.K. albums don’t have these tracks and the U.S. albums tend to wreck the sound. And while earlier Beatles singles compilations exist, they don’t present all the music in proper mono and did not receive the level of mastering on display here.

The Beatles - Mono Reissue

Apple’s 2014 100% analog reissue is the first release to challenge the primacy of an original U.K. pressing. Even if you’ve only heard the album in stereo, forget the Japanese and out-of-print Mobile Fidelity reissues. This mono reissue will win you over.

Bob Dylan - More Blood, More Tracks—The Bootleg Series Vol. 14

The title of More Blood, More Tracks—The Bootleg Series Vol. 14 contains juicy hyperbole that Columbia’s marketing department likely couldn’t resist, yet a more accurate albeit less sexy moniker would’ve been Bob Dylan Unplugged. Never mind the fact Dylan had already turned in numerous acoustic albums. The “more blood” refers to the long-delayed official publication of previously pirated takes from one of the Bard’s greatest albums, 1975’s Blood on the Tracks, a truly flawless work.

Eric Dolphy - Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions

Fans of Dolphy, and inquisitive souls who wish to study some of the most creative jazz ever recorded, should grab this limited-edition set—released as a Record Store Day Black Friday (November 23, 2018) special. It also comes with an outstanding 20-page booklet replete with photos and informative liner notes. Many prior Resonance sets have quickly sold out and turned up for twice the retail price on eBay. Consider yourself warned.

Bob Dylan - Nashville Skyline

The original pressing possesses immediacy and impact, but lacks any real depth of stage or instrumental texture. Unlike some of the other Mobile Fidelity Dylan reissues, the label’s 45RPM reissue of Nashville Skyline is produced from something other than the original master tapes. Nevertheless, it registers an improvement over the original.

Various - Newvelle Records Season Three

Newvelle Records is releasing subscription LPs employing a very different direct sales approach. Rather than shoot for high sales volume, Newvelle LPs are intended to be collectible—a physical object that begs to be handled with attention. The imprint’s artist roster is phenomenal—you’d think you were buying from Blue Note or ECM rather than a start-up. And the physical presentation is as good as it gets.

Janis Joplin - Pearl

I searched for years to find a good-sounding pressing of Pearl, even shelling out for a “hot stamper” copy to wring the most feeling from Joplin’s lyrics. Mobile Fidelity’s version now takes pride of place. “That’s it!” (Joplin’s cackling laugh fades to black.)

The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

Analogue Productions’ 45RPM edition makes the mono spread more seamless, slightly wider and deeper, and the instrumental texture more lifelike.

The Stooges - Raw Power

Carefully mastered by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio, it includes the Bowie mix on one LP and the 1993 Pop remix on a second LP. The acid test of whether an engineer properly dialed in the music relates to whether or not it falls apart at loud volumes. Columbia’s reissue passes the test with flying colors, maintaining the textures of guitars and voices even more convincingly than the original.

The Beatles - Revolver (Mono)

Compared to a very early U.K. original pressing, the reissue brings out greater detail—instrumental parts you likely don’t remember being there before are fleshed out and seemingly step forward from the mist. Such enhancement does not sound like the result of frequency adjustment. Rather, improvements in the mastering chain are likely responsible.

Rickie Lee Jones - Rickie Lee Jones

The newer, 45RPM 2LP box set from Mobile Fidelity features a wider soundstage. And the texture is off the charts. Listen to the vocal sibilants and you can hear Jones’ breath slowly fade away. The richness added by the 45RPM treatment makes the Rhino LP sound a tad dry by comparison.

Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus

Analogue Productions’ 33RPM mastering produces an even larger soundstage with better depth. Add to that the fact that the new packaging is far superior to the 45RPM issue, and this one-disc package is Sonny Rollins nirvana.

Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain

” … the Mobile Fidelity pressing checks all the boxes. The soundstage has never sounded so coherent, and it’s absolutely clear the musicians were all in the room at the same time … Indeed, the sound is so convincing that you’ll some day find yourself wondering why your favorite performance venue never sounded as good as the dearly departed 30thStreet Studio.”

Willie Nelson - Stardust

Pop standards from Willie Nelson? Back in 1978 when the artist released Stardust, Columbia Records thought he had lost it. But there was no second-guessing Nelson and boy, was he right. His recording of the most standard of standards—”Blue Skies,” “Stardust,” “Georgia on My Mind,” “All of Me” (and that’s just side one of the disc)—seemed a little odd for a marijuana-loving country-western singer.

The James Gang - The Best of the James Gang

As the liner notes of James Gang Rides Again dictate, these tracks are “Made Loud To Be Played Loud” and you don’t expect, and won’t find, much in the way of stage depth or air around the instruments. What you do get is the sound of a power trio sounding more powerful than ever. The drums, bass, and guitar are never buried in the mix and everything is clearly recorded.

The Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones in Mono

However, the pressings are immaculate, flat, and quiet. At the end of the day, that’s what counts. As a result, The Rolling Stones in Mono should make a lot of people ecstatic.

The Stooges - The Stooges

… the group was ahead of its time in almost every way—even extending to its avoidance of destructive editing techniques. Yes, the album is loud, but it retains an alluring dynamic snap. Nothing gets lost in the mix, and each instrument and voice maintains body and texture. The Stooges is not “audiophile” quality by any means, but such an approach wouldn’t have been appropriate.

Various - The Wonderful Sounds of Female Vocals

The compilation was assembled from digital high-resolution files produced from the all-analog tapes (when available). Gray has few peers and the two-LP set is as sharp a calling card as exists for experiencing how good older recordings can be made to sound when the care and skill of an exceptional mastering engineer is at the helm. If this album doesn’t make your stereo sound fantastic, don’t blame it on the LPs!

The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out

AP’s 45RPM 2LP edition is 100% analog mastered by Bernie Grundman from the original tapes and sounds like it. Of all the choices, this reissue most authoritatively nails the piano and bass sound. At times with an original, you have to remind yourself the bassist is there. The piano’s left-hand part is also much better fleshed out on the AP reissue than elsewhere.

Charles Lloyd and the Marvels - Vanished Gardens

As jazz meets Americana, the album succeeds brilliantly, with Lloyd’s longing riffs always sounding like jazz yet never seeming out of place with the rock and country material injected throughout. The closing song, with Williams singing Jimi Hendrix’s “Angel” as Lloyd’s saxophone soars above and around her, feels sublime and stands as the work’s highlight.

Gene Clark - White Light

Most who listen to an original A&M copy of White Light would not recognize any hidden gold in the master tapes. A comparison with Intervention’s reissue, however, shows otherwise. Intervention’s copy takes a so-so-sounding recording and turns it into a reference-class disc.

Grateful Dead - Workingman’s Dead

Flash back to 1970. Things are crumbling all around. Small-scale music heads out of favor for stadium rock and tuneful word craft is trading in for metal. The Summer of Love, a foundation of the Grateful Dead vibe, seems a distant memory. And the Dead are broke and in need of a fix. Workingman’s Dead became a brilliant solution to this dilemma.

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