Audiophile Discs Archives - Page 35 of 47

Michael McDonald – If That’s What It Takes (1982) {1984, MFSL Remastered, CD-Quality + Hi-Res Vinyl Rip}

Michael McDonald - If That's What It Takes (1982) {1984, MFSL Remastered, CD-Quality + Hi-Res Vinyl Rip}

Michael McDonald – If That’s What It Takes (1982) {1984, MFSL Remastered, CD-Quality + Hi-Res Vinyl Rip}
Vinyl Rip | Hi-Res / FLAC Tracks / 24bit / 96kHz | CD-Quality / FLAC Tracks / 16bit / 44.1kHz
Full Scans Included
Total Size: 842 MB (Hi-Res) + 229 MB (CD-Quality) | 3% RAR Recovery
Label: Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab | Pressed in Japan | Cat#: MFSL 1-149 | Genre: Pop, Soul
Half-Speed Mastered

As the lead singer of the Doobie Brothers from 1975-1980, Michael McDonald’s soulful voice and skilled writing gave the group classics like “Minute by Minute,” “Real Love,” and the perfect “What a Fool Believes.” After the group’s 1980 album One Step Closer displayed a tension that was almost audible, it was no surprise that a split was in the works. Continue reading “Michael McDonald – If That’s What It Takes (1982) {1984, MFSL Remastered, CD-Quality + Hi-Res Vinyl Rip}”

YES – Fragile (1971) [2019, MFSL Remastered, CD-Quality + Hi-Res Vinyl Rip]

YES - Fragile (1971) [2019, MFSL Remastered, CD-Quality + Hi-Res Vinyl Rip]

YES – Fragile (1971) [2019, MFSL Remastered, CD-Quality + Hi-Res Vinyl Rip]
2x Vinyl Rip | Hi-Res / FLAC Tracks / 24bit / 192kHz | CD-Quality / FLAC Tracks / 16bit / 44.1kHz
Full Scans Included
Total Size: 2.29 GB (Hi-Res) + 993 MB (CD-Quality) | 3% RAR Recovery
Label: MFSL | UltraDisc One-Step | USA | Cat#: UD1S 2-012 | Genre: Progressive Rock

Strictly limited to 7,500 numbered copies and pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl at RTI, Mobile Fidelity’s ultra-hi-fi UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP collector’s edition presents Fragile with exacting sonics and unsurpassed visuals. Prized for decades for its brilliant textures, harmonics, dynamics, colors, and openness, the 1971 album now comes across with surreal transparency, multi-dimensional scope, and seemingly unlimited responsiveness. Continue reading “YES – Fragile (1971) [2019, MFSL Remastered, CD-Quality + Hi-Res Vinyl Rip]”

Barry Manilow – Barry Manilow I (1973) {1982, MFSL Remastered, CD-Quality + Hi-Res Vinyl Rip}

Barry Manilow - Barry Manilow I (1973) {1982, MFSL Remastered, CD-Quality + Hi-Res Vinyl Rip}

Barry Manilow – Barry Manilow I (1973) {1982, MFSL Remastered, CD-Quality + Hi-Res Vinyl Rip}
Vinyl Rip | Hi-Res / FLAC Tracks / 24bit / 96kHz | CD-Quality / FLAC Tracks / 16bit / 44.1kHz
Full Scans Included
Total Size: 799 MB (Hi-Res) + 232 MB (CD-Quality) | 3% RAR Recovery
Label: Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab | Pressed in Japan | Cat#: MFSL 1-097 | Genre: Adult Contemporary
Half-Speed Mastered

Barry Manilow’s debut album proves to be a far different animal than its glitzier successors; it’s fairly raw and unpolished, though his dramatic vocal style is already well established here. The material roams from impassioned balladeering (“I Am Your Child,” “One of These Days”) to chunky country (“Sweetwater Jones”), driving rock (“Oh My Lady”), and ’40s-style swing (“Cloudburst”) — and that’s just side one. “Could It Be Magic,” of course, is what pulled Manilow above the pack; it’s a textbook summary of the dramatic orchestration and swooning vocals that have long marked his style. Continue reading “Barry Manilow – Barry Manilow I (1973) {1982, MFSL Remastered, CD-Quality + Hi-Res Vinyl Rip}”

Bee Gees – Trafalgar (1971) [1996, MFSL Remastered, CD-Quality + Hi-Res Vinyl Rip]

Bee Gees - Trafalgar (1971) [1996, MFSL Remastered, CD-Quality + Hi-Res Vinyl Rip]

Bee Gees – Trafalgar (1971) [1996, MFSL Remastered, CD-Quality + Hi-Res Vinyl Rip]
Vinyl Rip | Hi-Res / FLAC Tracks / 24bit / 96kHz | CD-Quality / FLAC Tracks / 16bit / 44.1kHz
Full Scans Included
Total Size: 1 GB (Hi-Res) + 290 MB (CD-Quality)
Label: Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab | US | Cat#: MFSL 1-263 | Genre: Pop Rock
Half-Speed Mastered

The Bee Gees had entered the early ’70s with a roaring success in the guise of “Lonely Days” and its accompanying album, which established their sound as a softer pop variant on the Moody Blues’ brand of progressive rock. Trafalgar, which followed, carried the process further on what was their longest single LP release, clocking in at 47 minutes. The music all sounded meaningful, much of it displaying the same kind of faux-grandeur that the Moody Blues affected on their music of this era, the core group (playing pretty hard) acompanied by either Mellotron-generated orchestra or the real thing, with the group’s soaring harmonies and Robin Gibb’s quavaring lead vocals all over the place. Continue reading “Bee Gees – Trafalgar (1971) [1996, MFSL Remastered, CD-Quality + Hi-Res Vinyl Rip]”

Santana – Santana (1969) [2007, MFSL Remastered]

Santana - Santana (1969) [2007, MFSL Remastered]

Before the arrival of Carlos Santana’s eponymous band, the San Francisco rock scene drew the inspiration for its jam-oriented music mainly from blues, rock, and Eastern modalities. Santana added Latin music to the mix, forever changing the course of rock & roll history. On their groundbreaking debut album, the group mix Latin percussion with driving rock grooves. Continue reading “Santana – Santana (1969) [2007, MFSL Remastered]”

Metallica – 2 Albums [DCC Compact Classics, Remastered]

Metallica - 2 Albums [DCC Compact Classics, Remastered]

Ride The Lightning (1984) & Master Of Puppets (1986)
Continue reading “Metallica – 2 Albums [DCC Compact Classics, Remastered]”

Simon And Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970) [1993, Sony MasterSound, Remastered]

Simon And Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970) [1993, Sony MasterSound, Remastered]

Bridge Over Troubled Water was one of the biggest-selling albums of its decade, and it hasn’t fallen too far down on the list in years since. Apart from the gospel-flavored title track, which took some evolution to get to what it finally became, however, much of Bridge Over Troubled Water also constitutes a stepping back from the music that Simon & Garfunkel had made on Bookends Continue reading “Simon And Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970) [1993, Sony MasterSound, Remastered]”

John Mayall With Eric Clapton – Blues Breakers (1966) [1994, MFSL Remastered]

John Mayall With Eric Clapton - Blues Breakers (1966) [1994, MFSL Remastered]

Blues Breakers is a blues LP recorded by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers in 1966, the first studio album and the second overall credited to John Mayall, who teamed up for the first time in a studio release with ex-Yardbird Eric Clapton (their next and last time will be for six tracks of 1971’s double LP Back to the Roots). Continue reading “John Mayall With Eric Clapton – Blues Breakers (1966) [1994, MFSL Remastered]”

Frank Sinatra – Songs For Swingin’ Lovers (1956) [1993, MFSL Remastered]

Frank Sinatra - Songs For Swingin' Lovers (1956) [1993, MFSL Remastered]

After the ballad-heavy In the Wee Small Hours, Frank Sinatra and Nelson Riddle returned to up-tempo, swing material with Songs for Swingin’ Lovers!, arguably the vocalist’s greatest swing set. Like Sinatra’s previous Capitol albums, Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! consists of reinterpreted pop standards, ranging from the ten-year-old “You Make Me Feel So Young” to the 20-year-old “Pennies From Heaven” and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” Sinatra is supremely confident throughout the album, singing with authority and joy. Continue reading “Frank Sinatra – Songs For Swingin’ Lovers (1956) [1993, MFSL Remastered]”

The Moody Blues – Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1971) [1995, MFSL, Remastered]

The Moody Blues - Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1971) [1995, MFSL, Remastered]

The best-realized of their classic albums, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour was also the last of the group’s albums for almost a decade to be done under reasonably happy and satisfying circumstances — for the last time with this lineup, they went into the studio with a reasonably full song bag and a lot of ambition and brought both as far as time would allow, across close to four months (interrupted by a tour of the United States right in the middle). Continue reading “The Moody Blues – Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1971) [1995, MFSL, Remastered]”

The Moody Blues – In Search Of The Lost Chord (1968) [1993, MFSL, Remastered]

The Moody Blues - In Search Of The Lost Chord (1968) [1993, MFSL, Remastered]

In Search of the Lost Chord is the album on which the Moody Blues discovered drugs and mysticism as a basis for songwriting and came up with a compelling psychedelic creation, filled with songs about Timothy Leary and the astral plane and other psychedelic-era concerns. Continue reading “The Moody Blues – In Search Of The Lost Chord (1968) [1993, MFSL, Remastered]”

The Moody Blues – Days of Future Passed (1967) [1989, MFSL, Remastered]

The Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed (1967) [1989, MFSL, Remastered]

This album marked the formal debut of the psychedelic-era Moody Blues; though they’d made a pair of singles featuring new (as of 1966) members Justin Hayward and John Lodge, Days of Future Passed was a lot bolder and more ambitious. Continue reading “The Moody Blues – Days of Future Passed (1967) [1989, MFSL, Remastered]”

Heart – Dreamboat Annie (1975) [1994, DCC Compact Classics, Remastered]

Heart - Dreamboat Annie (1975) [1994, DCC Compact Classics, Remastered]

In the 1980s and ’90s, numerous women recorded blistering rock, but things were quite different in 1976 — when female singers tended to be pigeonholed as soft rockers and singer/songwriters and were encouraged to take after Carly Simon, Melissa Manchester, or Joni Mitchell rather than Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath. Greatly influenced by Zep, Heart did its part to help open doors for ladies Continue reading “Heart – Dreamboat Annie (1975) [1994, DCC Compact Classics, Remastered]”

Janis Joplin – Pearl (1971) [1993, MasterSound Remastered]

Janis Joplin - Pearl (1971) [1993, MasterSound Remastered]

Janis Joplin’s second masterpiece (after Cheap Thrills), Pearl was designed as a showcase for her powerhouse vocals, stripping down the arrangements that had often previously cluttered her music or threatened to drown her out. Thanks also to a more consistent set of songs, the results are magnificent — given room to breathe, Joplin’s trademark rasp conveys Continue reading “Janis Joplin – Pearl (1971) [1993, MasterSound Remastered]”

Scorpions – 2 Albums [Audio Fidelity Remastered]

Scorpions - 2 Albums [Audio Fidelity Remastered]

Virgin Killer (1976) / Love At First Sting (1984)
Continue reading “Scorpions – 2 Albums [Audio Fidelity Remastered]”