American Beauty 2LP

American Beauty is the most perfectly realized, superbly played, and openly natural folk-rock record ever released. They dont make albums like this anymore, but thankfully, Mobile Fidelitys extraordinary 180g 45RPM 2LP set allows you to experience this 1970 masterpiece with unrivaled intimacy, realism, detail, and perspective. The Dead might as well be sitting on a Persian carpet right in your living room.

The pinnacle of the Deads studio output, American Beauty lives up to its nameas well as that of the American Reality ambigram on the iconic cover. Airy vocal harmonies blow like fresh breezes. Strummed acoustic guitars amicably intermingle with plaintive percussive beats. Warmth, relaxation, and poignancy envelop the performances and create sensations of bliss, peace, and honesty. Songs flower with majestic melodies and emotionally direct lyrics. Its a rare album that makes one feel, restores ones faith, and renews ones appreciation for all life offers.

Mastered from the original master tapes and pressed on 180g LP at RTI, this deluxe analog set possesses seemingly limitless dynamics, reference-grade presence, and expansive soundstages. The seamless, effortless integration of the groups vocals has always been a high point of American Beauty, and when you hear it here, youll want every record you own to sound half as good. Every members distinctive singing resounds with tube-like clarity; the intended expressionism is as plain as day. Instruments, too, resonate in glorious Technicolor. The supple tension of Phil Leshs bass lines, charismatic timbres of Jerry Garcias pedal-steel fills, and interwoven dialogue between the pianos and percussion are rendered with lifelike scale and tone.