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Bob Dylan MoFi

Heard from a very reliable source that Mobile fidelity Sound labs will be releasing a set of Dylan Lps in Mono in the coming months. Time to open the wallet once again. 
fromunda
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,819 posts
 
Slaw, your mention of the sound of Oh Mercy on LP has reminded of the fact that by the time that album came out, I was of the opinion that since LP's were in all probability being mastered from a digital source, there was no point in getting the LP (a digitally sourced LP---the worst of both worlds). Now I'm curious to compare the LP to the CD of both it and Time Out of Mind. I would love to have those albums in better-than-CD sound!
slaw's avatar
slaw
21,642 posts
 
bdp24,

FWIW, I listened to "Time Out Of Mind" today.

What stands out to me is that DL was trying to get a certain type of sound, say from an era gone by, (hence the title of the lp) as opposed to an audiophile approved sounding lp. This can be off-putting in the sense that it kind of accentuates the digital nature of this recording on some tracks more than others. The content, however is excellent, IMO.

Comparing "Oh Mercy" and "Time Out of Mind" on sonic qualities alone,
"Oh Mercy" is consistently superior.

Thanks for bringing this lp up in the conversation. I will enjoy listening to it again.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,819 posts
 

Slaw, Time Out of Mind is pretty amazing---"Not Dark Yet" absolutely hypnotic. But the sound is sooo bad (on CD, at least), like it’s coming from the bottom of a well. Musically, Lanois was after something Dylan didn’t particularly care for (he broke off the sessions many times, the two fighting constantly during the recording of the album), and wasted the talents of guitarist Duke Robillard, whose parts were left largely on the mixing room floor (Google Duke’s comments about the recording of the album). Duke left and went to play guitar for Lucinda Williams, and just tore it up when I saw him with her. I don’t care for Lanois, at all. He’s okay for U2, but who cares about them ;-)?

I’ll look for a copy of Oh Mercy on LP. I just moved North, and there is a pretty good LP store nearby---Music Millennium in Portland.

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
The best Dylan album is actually Modern Times if you ask me. I know, who’s asking. The only little problem I have with Modern Times is that it is unfortunately one of those CDs you hear about that suffers the indignity of overly aggressive dynamic range compression. Nevertheless....
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