An Intense Journey into Toxic Relationships Balanced with Gorgeous Arrangements and Dark Humor: Lou Reed’s Conceptual Berlin Features A-List Cast and Bob Ezrin Production
Sourced from the Original Master Tapes: Mobile Fidelity’s Numbered-Edition 180g Vinyl LP Presents the Singer-Songwriter’s 1973 Album in Audiophile Quality for the First Time, Includes Eight-Page Booklet Insert
1/4" / 15 IPS / Dolby A analog master to DSD 256 to analog console to lathe
Like the records he made with his first band, Berlin finds Lou Reed decades ahead of the times. Though dismissed upon its original release in 1973, the former Velvet Underground member’s third solo effort ultimately landed on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and remains one of his most lauded works.
Addressing mature issues in stark fashion, the rock opera blends autobiographical reality, poetic license, and ambitious arrangements to tell the story of a couple’s toxic relationship and its fallout. Produced by Bob Ezrin and featuring an array of ace musicians, Berlin is an emotionally harrowing and sonically eclectic journey into the many of the worst tendencies of the human condition.
Sourced from the original master tapes, housed in a Stoughton jacket, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, and featuring a faithful reproduction of the original full-size eight-page booklet insert, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition 180g LP of Berlin presents the landmark recording in audiophile quality for the first time. The scope, balance, and reach of Ezrin’s explosive production comes to the fore. As does the ample spaciousness and separation that help give the songs breathing room even when the music builds to an orchestral pitch.
Reed’s distinctive voice — central to every track — sounds direct, immediate, centered. The realism and clarity of his tone make it appear as if he’s entered the room. You can trace his breath control, reserved coolness, and commanding phrasing. And sense the implied violence, delusion, and sorrow in the questions and statements he issues in the persona of the protagonist Jim — as well as the empathy, fatigue, confusion, and frustration he projects in his guise as Caroline.
Mobile Fidelity’s reissue also puts into a new, improved light the brilliant contributions of the standout session players. Steve Winwood (Hammond organ), Michael Brecker (tenor saxophone), Randy Brecker (trumpet), and Procol Harum drummer B.J. Wilson play key roles. The core band assisting Reed and Ezrin on a majority of Berlin — Alice Cooper guitarists Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter, drum maven Aynsley Dunbar, Cream bassist Jack Bruce — turn in a collective performance for the ages. None more so than Bruce, whose bass lines resonate on this LP with a roundedness, fatness, tautness, and control that give songs added depth and foundation. Ezrin’s restrained piano, full of body and decay, performs a similar function.
Tracks
Berlin
Lady Day
Men of Good Fortune
Caroline Says I
How Do You Think It Feels
Oh, Jim
Caroline Says II
The Kids
The Bed
Sad Song
UPC: 196588772214