Mastered on Mobile Fidelity’s World-Renowned Mastering System, Limited to 4,000 Copies, and Pressed at RTI As soon as it was issued, Bob Dylan’sOh Mercywas 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 Mercyhas 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 limited to 4,000 numbered copies,Oh Mercynow takes on cinematic qualities worthy of Lanois’ production and Dylan’s performances. Available for the first time on audiophile vinyl, 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 theOh Mercysimultaneously 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 Mercyfurther stands out for its on-the-floor immediacy and nuanced treatments. Gone are the slick, processed, “shoulder pad” synthetic backdrops Dylan employed on the precedingEmpire Burlesque. Borrowing from approaches he used on U2’sThe 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 onOh Mercyhave 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 ofOh 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 howOh Mercycompares 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 toOh Mercy’s lingering magnetism and power. Follow us on Instagram @rollinrecs