The Allman Brothers Band Eat A Peach

Mobile Fidelity MFSL 2-398

audiophile 2x 180g Vinyl LP

limited numbered edition # 1604

made in USA

new, factory sealed

The Allman Brothers Band

Mobile Fidelity MFSL 1-397

audiophile 180g Vinyl LP

limited numbered edition # 673

made in USA

new, factory sealed

The Allman Brothers Band Idlewild South

Mobile Fidelity MFSL 1-301

audiophile 180g Vinyl LP

limited numbered edition # 4754

made in USA

new, factory sealed

The Alan Parsons Project I Robot

Mobile Fidelity MFSL 2-455

audiophile 2x 180g Vinyl LP

limited numbered edition

made in USA

new, factory sealed

The Alan Parsons Project I Robot

Mobile Fidelity Ultradisc One-Step LP Box UD1S 1-041

audiophile 33 RPM 180g Vinyl LP

limited numbered edition of 10000 copies

made in USA

new, factory sealed

Ryan Adams Love is Hell

Mobile Fidelity MOFI 3-040

audiophile 3 Vinyl LP Box

limited numbered edition

made in USA

new, factory sealed

Big Brother & The Holding Company Cheap Thrills

Mobile Fidelity MFSL 2-453

audiophile 2x 180g Vinyl LP

limited numbered edition

made in USA

new, factory sealed

In many facets, Big Brother and the Holding Company's Cheap Thrills is the quintessential album to spring from the outcome of the Summer of Love. Best known as Janis Joplin's major-label debut, the 1968 set arrived when the countercultural movement was in full swing and before co-optation, drugs, and violence signaled the fall of the era. Ranked #338 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, it puts a female singer in the prominent position traditionally given to a male and showcases a band pouring a potent cocktail of fiery psychedelic, blues, and folk sounds that informed the unfettered creativity of the San Francisco scene. Produced by John Simon, Cheap Thrills also features one of the most iconic and elaborate album covers in history.

Combination of the Two

I Need a Man to Love

Summertime

Piece of My Heart

Turtle Blues

Oh, Sweet Mary

Ball and Chain

Cut at 45RPM and pressed on dead-quiet vinyl at RTI, the iconic audiophile label's analog reissue intensifies the quintet's storied sophomore effort. Due to the wider grooves, this pressing benefits from increased spaciousness, punchiness, energy, pacing, and dynamics. Joplin's hurricane-force singing reverberates with texture, grittiness, and volume. An arresting array of instrumental colors and tones comes on with clearer separation and depth. While previous pressings find the band and Joplin's voice in competition with one another for room, both emerge as distinct entities. Always noted for its rawness, Cheap Thrills sounds as close to live as it gets, an unadulterated portrait of nervy rock n' roll delivered with exuberant enthusiasm and all-out determination. This is music at is most visceral. Having drawn national attention for their legendary performance at the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967, Big Brother and Joplin faced huge expectations to deliver a studio set that would convey their onstage vibrancy and potency. Cheap Thrills does this and more, becoming one of 1968's most commercially successful releases that remained on the charts the week Joplin announced her separation from the ensemble. Contrary to popular belief, only one of the album's songs, "Ball and Chain," was recorded live. Everything else owes to the unhinged, spirit-elevating performances and true collaboration between vocalist and band that manifests itself throughout the record's 37-minute-plus running time. Merging biker-babe ruggedness with wounded-bird poignancy, Joplin's expressive belting, mega-watt moaning, and sensitive crooning take center stage. Yet her bandmates match every step with explosive rhythms, heavy guitar-driven blues, and assertive solos that take inspiration from free-form jazz. Indeed, Cheap Thrills still exhilarates not only due to Joplin's almighty singing but because of boundary-shredding arrangements that reflect the period's anything-is-possible mindset. More so than any other musicians Joplin encountered, the members of Big Brother pushed limits on convention via soirees into acid-dipped psychedelia and its orbiting sonic galaxies. Together, they aim and achieve an aural mythos that makes a permanent connection between artist and audience by way of eliminating traditional divisions. Such communal power is evident on the mind-bending version of Big Mama Thornton's "Ball and Chain" and insistent, sinewy "I Need a Man to Love." It's also obvious during quieter moments, whether the tripped-out, twisted, and curvaceous contours of George and Ira Gershwin's "Summertime" or restrained, throwback acoustic blues of "Turtle Blues." Yes, Joplin presents – and rallies against – loneliness and desperation in a cathartic language few had heard before or since. What's even more significant is the fearlessness, toughness, synergy, and sexual danger pulsing through every song, including the take-on-all-comers challenge "Piece of My Heart," which the collective attacks with career-making ferocity. Like Robert Crumb's daring pop-art illustrations that grace the cover, they simultaneously lure and dare the listener to enter a space where outsiders run free and where outlaws are heard above the mainstream din.

Janis Joplin Pearl

Mobile Fidelity MFSL 2-454

audiophile 2x 180g 45 RPM Vinyl LP

limited numbered edition

made in USA

new, factory sealed

Dire Straits Love Over Gold

Mobile Fidelity MFSL 2-469

audiophile 2x 180g 45 RPM Vinyl LP

limited numbered edition

made in USA

new, factory sealed

Love Over Gold is all about contrast, tension, and crafty composition. Dire Straits' fourth album finds the band continuing to evolve by welcoming increasingly bold arrangements and exploring moody variations. Parts edgy and sharp, and part seductive and relaxed, the five lengthy songs on Love Over Gold sprawl out like a long, winding road cutting through a pastoral landscape. The addition of a new rhythm guitarist, Hal Lindes, encourages deeper atmospheric interplay while the presence of engineer Neil Dorfsman – his first appearance in what would be a long string of collaborations with Mark Knopfler – ensures stunning sonic properties that now come to life like never before.

1. Telegraph Road

2. Private Investigations

3. Industrial Disease

4. Love Over Gold

5. It Never Rains

Mastered from the original master tapes and pressed at RTI, Mobile Fidelity's 180g 45RPM 2LP version of Love Over Gold teems with superb balances, front-to-back soundstages, and crystalline purity. The dead-quiet surfaces and extra-wide grooves bring forward previously obscured details, extra information, and mastering-studio-quality transients. The distinctive textures of a host of instruments – marimbas, acoustic and electric guitars, vibes, synthesizers – further enhance the ambitiousness of the 1982 album.

On this audiophile pressing, everything Knopfler does seemingly turn to gold. Gearheads will hear the unique characteristics afforded by his use of a Mesa Boogie Mark II guitar amplifier (soon again employed on Brothers in Arms) and carefully chosen selection of Schecter Stratocasters, 1937 National steel guitar, and Ovation six- and twelve-string models. Reference-level separation and lifelike imaging place Knopfler and company in your room, while tube-like warmth, spaciousness, and airiness causes the music to breathe anew.

This LP will be in your rotation for months. It doesn't take long to realize Love Over Gold is like no other Dire Straits album – and a staunch proclamation of independence from a band that continued to take longer creative strides with each successive project. Fearlessly extending over metaphoric hills, valleys, and plains for nearly 14-and-a-half minutes, the opening "Telegraph Road" is a guitar hero's dream and exhilarating showcase for Lindes' give-and-take capabilities. In tandem with keyboardist Alan Clark, Lindes provides the ideal foil for not only Knopfler but the long-time rhythm section of bassist John Illsley and drummer Pick Withers.

Taking its time to arrive at destinations, the quintet paints evocative musical and lyrical portraits steeped in patience, drama, and, often times, sadness. Desolate emotions color the sweeping "Telegraph Road" and barren "Private Investigations," which finds Knopfler in the role of a tired private eye contemplating the emptiness and scars of his profession. Vocally, the Dire Straits leader remains in top form throughout, his whiskey-coated rasp conveying romantic ache, ongoing frustration, and what Rolling Stone beautifully deemed "wracking schizophrenia between the heart and the heartless, the loving and the pain."

Called Dire Straits' prog-rock statement, Love Over Gold is a classic that defies labeling and avoids aging.

Dire Straits Making Movies

Mobile Fidelity MFSL 2-468

audiophile 2x 180g 45 RPM Vinyl LP

limited numbered edition

made in USA

new, factory sealed

Due to different opinions about the distribution of roles in the band, David Knopfler left Dire Straits during the recording of the third album Making Movies. He felt constrained by his brother Mark and did not find a hearing in the band with his own song contributions. David's departure coincided with Mark Knopfler's ambition to further develop his skills as a composer and lyricist - which fortunately succeeded. Romeo and Juliet became one of Dire Straits' best-known hits, but Tunnel of Love and Skateaway are also good testaments to that. Making Movies is jazzier than the previous two albums, with more musically complex arrangements and new wave-inspired production.

Remastering for the double LP on 180-g 45 rpm vinyl was handled by Krieg Wunderlich, assisted by Shawn R. Britton. The limited edition with consecutive serial number appears in gatefold cover.