Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks (Mofi Ultradisc One-Step 45rpm 2LP vinyl)

Bought from Elusive Disc for $99 on Black Friday, delivered last night.

Some scuffs on the sleeves, some off centre labels... but gorgeous pressing, incredible soundstage and clarity. I heard guitar effects on Idiot Wind that I'd never noticed before, really blown away by the audio quality.

I have the More Blood More Tracks, CBS Half-Step and a 70s Canadian Pressing as well as this one - no regrets.

 

Well, I guess I will have to change my vote on this poll. I went for the $99 sale at Elusive Disc.

What, then, add a few more pennies to get free shipping? What a sucker I am to fall for that. I added Patricia Barber's new album on LP, Higher, limited to 1000 pressings. Quite a few more pennies added.

 

Haha, definitely been in that situation more than once!

 

there oughtta be a poll (perhaps there already is):
how many times have you ordered additional (vinyl) just to get free shipping?
5-10
11-20
Always*

 

Tempted to change my No vote to a Yes in order to force a tie.

But it's not nice to cover up the truth with lies!

 

It depends on the difference. When most retailers were requiring $100 minimum for free shipping and I wanted a $25 item, I'd just ask for Media Mail shipping, which was usually $5. Music Matters now requires $199 for free shipping. I think I have only reached that minimum once, but have made a few orders in the last couple of years.

 

Yes, and there are listeners who simply do not like a 45rpm album and won't buy one.

 

Sure. And I'm sure they figured that into their numbers. Clearly, though, there are plenty enough who will buy and play 45s. Just check the 45rpm section of any of the online retailers. Lots to choose from. Even Capitol Records chose to reissue both of The Band's first two records at 45rpm (the self-titled album was just recently released).

 

And they sound wonderful.

 

I like them personally. I probably had over 150 45rpm albums at one time from AP, Music Matters. MFSL, ORG, and other labels. I sold my record collection because I moved out of state and had no desire to pack and move albums. I sold quite a few of them right here. It never bothered me to get up and turn a record over and the SQ was excellent on most of them.

 

I have kind of a love / hate thing going on with them. I love the sound of the new MFSL titles especially. I don't mind flipping them when I'm familiar with the record, but I don't like flipping when I don't know the music. It interrupts the flow of a record that I want to get to know. Most of the MM and AP jazz titles I would rether have at the 33 version because of that.

 

There are also listeners who simply do not like $125 albums and won’t buy one.

 

That is true. I used to but I don't anymore.

 

Just a heads-up, @AnalogJ, and anyone else considering picking up the Barber LP: I just got my copy and it turns out that it was pressed at MPO (not RTI, as I believe is typical for Impex), and has a burst of stitching on each side. A little wavy, too, but I can fix that. The stitching, not so much.

Not to say that everything from MPO is bad (my RSD "Early Minor" sounds fine—despite how it looks), however, if you were expecting Impex's usually top-drawer quality, you might be slightly disappointed with this one.

(Sorry for the off-topic post; this is the only mention of this album I've found, so wanted to follow up here.)

 

Thanks for that. MPO? A $35 album pressed there?? And it has stitching/non-fill? Is it audible?

Well, both are on their way to me.

 

Sadly, yes. Just one "zip" on each side, but, as you say, disappointing on a $35 album.

 

I recently bought the one step 45.
It’s got more low frequency extension than the 33.3 mofi version..
And it’s not as bright in the top end on some tracks like Meet Me in the morning..
However on Buckets of Rain and Simple Twist of Fate, the one step has more
top end and low end...
Diff. EQ choices...
I think Idiot Wind and Lily Rosemary really benefit from having more bass..
Anyway, I like having both versions in my collection..
The 45

 

Because of the price and my finances at the time, I voted “No”. However, I spotted a seller on eBay selling it at a (relatively) reasonable price at a time when funds had improved a little. Apart from the oft-mentioned marks on the sleeves, the set is stunning. My discs are totally silent with not a single pop or click. When I fired up TUIB I wasn’t sure what the fuss was about at first, but it wasn’t long before I started to hear tiny details I had not heard on the mofi 33rpm disc or SACD. Very lifelike and natural sounding, too. The 33rpm will soon be up for sale.

 

It's worth the money even though it hurt.

 

Ok, just got this. WOW!!!!!! Worth it. 10th vinyl version of this album, and it is the best. Just Wow....

 

It’s belter isn’t it!

 

Last night I sat down and intently listened to the One Step through headphones, and I share your thoughts exactly. At times, the One Step is not a cohesive listen, because the sound quality is almost too good. By which I mean that the sound quality is so incredible that, through headphones, it can become rather clinical. On “Tangled Up In Blue,” the individual guitar lines are so clearly resolved and distinct that I found myself obsessively focusing on the interplay between the guitarists at the expense of Bob’s vocal and the song as a whole. Part of the goal of mixing a rock album, or any album, I suppose, is to mix all of the elements into a cohesive whole. When the sound quality of a pressing is so good that you can laser focus in on the amazingly lifelike bass line of one track or the perfectly rendered cymbal hits of another, it’s easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees.

In this same vein, this One Step pressing reveals how Blood on the Tracks is not really an audiophile album, or, more precisely, how it’s not really a carefully crafted soundscape like Dark Side of the Moon. The engineers in New York and Minneapolis did a great job, but, on a track such as “Idiot Wind,” you hear Bob’s “we’re gonna play this in one take before the musicians even know the song” philosophy in full effect. The way the organ is mixed with the rest of the track is kind of ramshackle, maybe if they had done 50 takes and a bunch of overdubs, they could have gotten a better mix, but it is what it is, that’s how Dylan records. When Dylan’s coat buttons brush against his acoustic guitar strings, the One Step brings that out even more clearly than other pressings.

Having said all of that, on Side Four, when I got to the one-two punch of “If You See Her, Say Hello” and “Shelter From The Storm,” I stopped dissecting the sound quality and got caught up in the music and was transported by it, which is why we chase the dragon of buying the ultimate pressing of this or any other album. Dylan’s vocals on these two songs are astonishing on the One Step.

Now that I own two of these One Step pressings, this and Bridge Over Troubled Water, I share what seems to be the common complaint that the black boxes and sleeves that MoFi uses for these albums are a nightmare as far as attracting fingerprints and scuffs. Having to get up and flip the album every two or three songs is a pain in the neck and breaks the spell of the music, although Blood on the Tracks is such a long album with such long songs that it probably always should have been a double LP, and “Side Two” of the One Step is still so long that it’s not much different than listening to a normal 33 1/3 rpm album side. The Super Vinyl formulation is amazing, being able to see through it when you hold it up to the light reminds me of the old Quiex II records from back in the day, and it’s certainly dead quiet when you’re listening to the record. Having said that, there was some light scuffing and marking on Side Two of my copy when I first took it out of the sleeve, and you could hear some popping and ticking when the needle went over that part of the record. But problems like that are part of the vinyl experience, always have been and always will be, and I appreciate that MoFi are doing the best that they can. Whatever nitpicks I have about this record, overall it’s amazingly well done, and well worth the $125 asking price, in my opinion.

 

I ordered last week and received copy #8,490 out of 9,000. Who knows whether they ship the lower numbers first and higher numbers later, but, if they do, this would appear to be close to selling out. Most of the earlier One Steps have sold out.

 

As I noted above, I found Side 4 of the One Step, for whatever reason, to be the best sounding side. Not that the other sides sound bad.

 

Incredibly helpful review. This is my favorite Dylan album by a landslide and although I haven't dropped triple digits on a record yet (been close), I really should grab this. You may have just convinced me.