Bob Dylan's Oh Mercy was rightly regarded as a striking return to form. The 1989 album also won acclaim for the singer's decision to pair with visionary producer Daniel Lanois, whose sonic guidance draws vivid colors, hues, and warmth from the songs – all the while adding significant ambience, effect, and context. As time wears on, the record only gets better!

• Strictly Limited Edition (4000 Units)
• Numbered Edition
• 2LP 180 Gram 45rpm High Definition Vinyl pressed at RTI
• Half-Speed mastering on MFSL Gain 2 Ultra Analog System
• Mastered by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
• Mastered by Krieg Wunderlich and Shawn R. Britton
• Special Static Free & Dust Free Inner Sleeves
• Deluxe Gatefold Cover

Bob Dylan and Daniel Lanois Hit All the Right Notes on Oh Mercy: 1989 Album Mesmerizes with Brilliant Songwriting, Inspired Performances, Atmospheric Feel, Visionary Production. Mastered on Mobile Fidelity's World-Renowned Mastering System, Strictly Limited to 4,000 Copies, and Pressed at RTI: 180g 45RPM Vinyl 2LP Features Cinematic Sound.

As soon as it was issued, Bob Dylan's Oh Mercy was rightly regarded as a striking return to form. The 1989 set also won acclaim for the singer's decision to pair with visionary producer Daniel Lanois, whose sonic guidance draws vivid colors, hues, and warmth from the songs – all the while adding significant ambience, effect, and context. Removed from the circumstances of its original release, Oh Mercy has managed to both justify and transcend such praise. As time wears on, the record only gets better, with its razor-sharp songwriting and atmospheric soundscapes escalating to legendary proportions via Mobile Fidelity's definitive analog reissue.

Mastered on Mobile Fidelity's world-renowned mastering system, pressed at RTI, and strictly limited to 4,000 numbered copies, Oh Mercy now takes on cinematic qualities worthy of Lanois' production and Dylan's performances on 180g 45RPM 2LP. Available for the first time on audiophile vinyl, and at 45RPM speed, no less, the music benefits from a spaciousness, tonality, and surrealism no prior edition delivers. The extra groove space, too, seemingly gives each note its own physical dimension, whereby the Oh Mercy simultaneously immerses and surrounds you. Its clarity, dynamics, and extension also reach new heights throughout – whether it's the low-end reach on the spiritual-minded "Ring Them Bells" or combination of guitar-chord treble and piano decay on "Disease of Conceit."

Achieving a cohesiveness and richness absent from Dylan's other 80s efforts, Oh Mercy further stands out for its on-the-floor immediacy and nuanced treatments. Gone are the slick, processed, "shoulder pad" synthetic backdrops Dylan employed on the preceding Empire Burlesque. Borrowing from approaches he used on U2's The Joshua Tree, Lanois serves rather than obscures Dylan's intent – enhancing the topicality of barbed fare like "Political World" and further charging the self-doubting emotions of quizzical compositions such as "What Good Am I?"

For all of Lanois' magic, it's impossible to overlook the brilliance of Dylan's lyrics – or timbre and commitment of his singing. Many tracks on Oh Mercy have become live staples and fan favorites, and for very good reason. The swampy, percussive-augmented "Everything Is Broken" finds Dylan at his most forthright and descriptive, with the metaphorical and direct account of estrangement, loss, and chaos applicable to any number of eras, situations, or regimes. Mystery, voodoo, and portent fill "Man in the Long Black Coat," appointed by Lanois with aptly spooky devices and designed by its architect to "make an attack on your most vulnerable spots."

Indeed, vulnerability peppers the second half of Oh Mercy, whether on the unrequited bite of "What Was It You Wanted" or the gentle, heartbreaking look-back ballad "Shooting Star." By extension, Dylan strips himself of any defense mechanisms on the romantic albeit somber "Most of the Time," which rates among the icon's moving creations and captures the memory-haunting aftermath of a dissolved relationship with a frankness, transparency, and self-knowingness few artists would dare commit to tape.

Conversations about how Oh Mercy compares to Dylan's classic 1960s output continue to this day and, if anything, have become deeper and more involved due to the record's still-growing strengths. That several outtakes – "Series of Dreams," "Dignity," and "Born in Time" among them – landed on subsequent Dylan records and are beloved by fans speak to Oh Mercy's lingering magnetism and power.

“The background instrumentals are full and three-dimensional for the Mobile Fidelity incarnation. This is not so much the case with the original, where the instruments have less bloom; the guitars have a bit of a nasty edge, as does Dylan’s voice, if you turn the volume up properly; and there is little depth to the soundstage. For an album designed to have an atmospheric instrumental sound, DMM undercuts the intended sound. With the Mobile Fidelity reissue, I can more easily pick out the overdubs and almost see Lanois twisting knobs, and the sense of an open, spacious soundstage is better preserved.” — Dennis Davis, The Audio Beat

Track Listing:

01. Political World
02. Where Teardrops Fall
03. Everything Is Broken
04. Ring Them Bells
05. Man In The Long Black Coat
06. Most Of The Time
07. What Good Am I?
08. Disease Of Conceit
09. What Was It You Wanted
10. Shooting Star