Notes: Streamlined Pop, Eclectic Rock, Whimsical Personality, and Organic Production Harmonize on Harry Nilsson's Nilsson Schmilsson Includes #1 Smash 'Without You' and 'Coconut'Mastered from the Original Master Tapes and Strictly Limited to 2,500 Numbered Copies Mobile Fidelity Hybrid SACD Brings Beautiful Vocals and Brilliant Melodies into Clear View1971 Album Features Ace Contributions from Session Pros Includes #1 Smash 'Without You,' Novelty Favorite 'Coconut,' and Top 40 Romp 'Jump into the Fire'Harry Nilsson was many things in life - revered songwriter, razor-sharp wit, gifted singer, studio pioneer, daring poet, cult icon, creative maverick, fearless interpreter, larger-than-life inspiration, man of mystery and intrigue. All these hallmark facets come together in a resplendent symphony on Nilsson Schmilsson, a go-to standout in the beloved artist's vaunted canon and most commercially successful release. For the first time in decades, it features audiophile sonics that bring the record's brilliant melodicism, sophisticated soulfulness, subtle shading, and sure-handed production into full view.Mastered from the original master tapes and strictly limited to 2,500 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's hybrid SACD of Nilsson Schmilsson features unadulterated transparency and visceral solidity. The Brooklyn native's three-and-a-half octave range and beautiful phrasing come across with captivating depth, crystalline purity, and an emotional scope that stretches from tenderness to melodrama to sarcasm and beyond. Appealing as Nilsson's bizarre quirks remain, given how they stamp his music with personality and charm, his tremendous singing - of which Bud Scoppa memorably wrote possessed 'a slight sawtooth buzz to add resonance when required' - takes center stage.Ditto the eclectic arrangements that lend an organic cohesiveness the four-time Grammy-nominated record, named by Pitchfork as one of the Top 100 Albums of the 1970s. Produced by Richard Perry, known for his work with Barbra Streisand, Nilsson Schmilsson walks a tightrope between streamlined accessibility and mischievous, whimsical individualism. Providing a prime example of it's architect's breadth, a surfeit of exceptionally played organs, mellotrons, horns, strings, guitars, piano, and more paint daring soundscapes that on this reissue teem with color, texture, and detail. Reference-level spatiality and separation contribute to full, three-dimensional imaging and the ability to identify distinctive instruments (and their tones) in the mix. |
Tracks: Gotta Get Up, Driving Alone, Early in the Morning, The Moonbeam Song, Down, Without You, Coconut, Let the Good Times Roll, Jump Into the Fire, I'll Never Leave You |