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Although little can or needs to be said about Elvis Costello’s superb 1977 debut, My Aim is True, there’s plenty to say about Mobile Fidelity’s breathtaking new 180-gram vinyl release.
As mastered by MoFi vet Shawn Britton—see the feature on Mobile Fidelity in Issue 199—who so loves this album that 25 years ago he named his daughter Alison after this record’s best- known track, My Aim Is True is the sonic equivalent of an old master painting that has been scrubbed of ages’ worth of muddy, detail-robbing varnish.
What was once tinny now has a genuine sense of weight and texture, be it Costello’s ringing Fender Jazzmaster guitar, a floating cymbal, or the bottom end bump of bass and drums. What was once dynamically limp now snaps to life. And Costello’s vocals—from the sweet tenor of “Alison” to the more slightly adenoidal sounds heard on “Sneaky Feelings,” have a clarity and “there-ness” that will give you goose bumps. Moreover, there is a sense of musical coherence to the whole as well as a reach-out-and-grab- it immediacy that makes you feel as if you’re back in that old London Pathways studio, eavesdropping on Costello and Co. at work.
By Wayne Garcia
Although I’ve been a wine merchant for the past decade, my career in audio was triggered at age 12 when I heard the Stones’ Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! blasting from my future brother-in-law’s giant home-built horn speakers. The sound certainly wasn’t sophisticated, but, man, it sure was exciting.
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