Mining Audiophile Treasures: Coming Soon from Audio Fidelity and MFSL

August 10, 2010 By Joe Marchese — 1 Comment

Some of rock’s finest will be receiving the deluxe treatment from audiophile specialist labels Audio Fidelity and Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL) in the coming months: The Beach Boys, The Band, Gram Parsons, Deep Purple, Foreigner, The Pretenders and Billy Joel.

The earliest release in this bunch is also one of the most exciting. The Beach Boys’ Today! was released in 1965 and is generally remembered as one of the first albums on which Brian Wilson displayed the sensitive studio wizardry that would reach its fullest expression on the following year’s Pet Sounds. Today! offers such lush, reflective tracks as “Please Let Me Wonder,” “She Knows Me Too Well” and “Kiss Me Baby,” along with the hit cover “Do You Wanna Dance,” the perennial “When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)” and the original album version of “Help Me, Ronda” before she gained an “h” and a spiffy new arrangement for the single. Mobile Fidelity will release Today! as a hybrid SACD, presumably in glorious mono. This is only the second Beach Boys release in a high resolution format, after Capitol’s DVD-Audio of Pet Sounds (Capitol 72434-77937-9-0) with advanced resolution stereo, mono and surround tracks.

The Band’s 1970 Stage Fright was the group’s third album, and noticeably darker in tone than its predecessors. It was engineered by the up-and-coming Todd Rundgren, and Rundgren was then dispatched to mix the LP in New York. A separate mix was commissioned from renowned producer Glyn Johns in London, and the final LP featured the work of both gentlemen. Mobile Fidelity continues its series of SACD reissues by The Band with this hybrid disc. Another artist with great strains of Americana in his music is the late Gram Parsons, whose 1971 GP likewise receives the hybrid SACD treatment from Mobile Fidelity. This hauntingly beautiful disc captures Parsons with indispensable harmony vocals from Emmylou Harris and a crack band including James Burton, Ronnie Tutt and Glen D. Hardin.

The same year Parsons was breaking ground in country-rock, Deep Purple was recording rock of a very different stripe. Audio Fidelity has released a number of CDs by the band already (including In Rock, Machine Head, Who Do We Think We Are and Live on the BBC) and will soon deliver a 24k gold CD of the American LP version of the heavy rock pioneers’ Fireball. (The American LP as released on Warner Bros. Records doesn’t include “Demon’s Eye.”) Steve Hoffman handles the mastering honors and it’s due on September 7. Click on the jump to catch up with plans for Foreigner, the Pretenders and Billy Joel, along with track lists for all releases and discographical information!

Mobile Fidelity plans a stereo hybrid SACD release for 1977’s self-titled Foreigner. This LP has already been released by Rhino as a highly sought-after DVD-Audio (Rhino 76665); unfortunately Mobile Fidelity, as is their custom, will not be including the surround mix on their SACD. That said, expect to hear the sparkling original recordings of the anthemic, era-defining “Cold as Ice” and “Feels Like the First Time” in optimal sound that only SACD can deliver. The final release in this batch of hybrid SACDs is 1981’s Pretenders II. (The debut album by Chrissie Hynde’s group has already been released, somewhat controversially, by Audio Fidelity as a gold CD.) This set offers Hynde’s take on Ray Davies’ “I Go to Sleep” and a raucous “Louie, Louie” along with pop gem “Talk of the Town” and rockers like “Message of Love.”

Many pundits lumped the Pretenders’ early albums into the punk and new wave genres, and 1980’s Glass Houses was said to be Billy Joel’s attempt to throw himself into those particular rings. The remarkably diverse Glass Houses receives Audio Fidelity’s 24k gold treatment on September 7, with mastering by Kevin Gray. Side 1 of the original LP was loaded with hits: “You May Be Right,” “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,” “Don’t Ask Me Why,” but as good as they are, they’re just the tip of the iceberg. The album also offers the pulsating “All for Leyna” and the tough, edgy “Sometimes a Fantasy.” Joel proved his mastery of many pop styles with Glass Houses, including his own take on new wave and punk attitude, and it’s a welcome addition to the Audio Fidelity catalog.

The Mobile Fidelity titles haven’t been scheduled yet, but release dates should be imminent.

The Beach Boys, Today! (Capitol 2269, 1965, reissued as Mobile Fidelity UDSACD2054, 2010)

  1. Do You Wanna Dance
  2. Good to My Baby
  3. Don’t Hurt My Little Sister
  4. When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)
  5. Help Me, Ronda
  6. Dance, Dance, Dance
  7. Please Let Me Wonder
  8. I’m So Young
  9. Kiss Me, Baby
  10. She Knows Me Too Well
  11. In the Back of My Mind
  12. Bull Session with the “Big Daddy”

The Band, Stage Fright (Capitol SW 425, 1970, reissued as Mobile Fidelity UDSACD2048, 2010)

  1. Strawberry Wine
  2. Sleeping
  3. Time to Kill
  4. Just Another Whistle Stop
  5. All La Glory
  6. The Shape I’m In
  7. The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show
  8. Daniel and the Sacred Harp
  9. Stage Fright
  10. The Rumor

Deep Purple, Fireball (Warner Bros. BS 2564-2, 1971, reissued as Audio Fidelity AFZ098, 2010)

  1. Fireball
  2. No No No
  3. Strange Kind of Woman
  4. Anyone’s Daughter
  5. The Mule
  6. Fools
  7. No One Came

Gram Parsons, GP (Reprise MS2123, 1973, reissued as Mobile Fidelity UDSACD2058, 2010)

  1. Still Feeling Blue
  2. We’ll Sweep Out the Ashes in the Morning
  3. A Song for You
  4. Streets of Baltimore
  5. She
  6. That’s All It Took
  7. The New Soft Shoe
  8. Kiss the Children
  9. Cry One More Time
  10. How Much I’ve Lied
  11. Big Mouth Blues

Foreigner, Foreigner (Atlantic SD18215, 1977, reissued as Mobile Fidelity UDSACD2050, 2010)

  1. Feels Like the First Time
  2. Cold as Ice
  3. Starrider
  4. Headknocker
  5. The Damage is Done
  6. Long, Long Way from Home
  7. Woman Oh Woman
  8. At War with the World
  9. Fool for You Anyway
  10. I Need You

Pretenders, Pretenders II (Sire SRK-3572, 1981, reissued as Mobile Fidelity UDSACD2056, 2010)

  1. The Adultress
  2. Bad Boys Get Spanked
  3. Message of Love
  4. I Go to Sleep
  5. Birds of Paradise
  6. Talk of the Town
  7. Pack It Up
  8. Waste Not Want Not
  9. Day After Day
  10. Jealous Dogs
  11. The English Roses
  12. Louie Louie

Billy Joel, Glass Houses (Columbia FC36384, 1980, reissued as Audio Fidelity AFZ092, 2010)

  1. You May Be Right
  2. Sometimes a Fantasy
  3. Don’t Ask Me Why
  4. It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me
  5. All for Leyna
  6. I Don’t Want to Be Alone
  7. Sleeping with the Television On
  8. C’etait Toi (You Were the One)
  9. Close to the Borderline
  10. Through the Long Night
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Joe Marchese
Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.

Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

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1 thought on “Mining Audiophile Treasures: Coming Soon from Audio Fidelity and MFSL”

  1. Sean Anglum

    OMG…between these releases and the upcoming bushel of Apple releases on the horizon (and whatever else is in the works)….I have an important question….what bank am I robbing to get all of these wonderful fruits?! Help!

    Reply

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