Mobile Fidelity to re-release Get Happy

[Pigalle]

From: http://www.musicdirect.com/product/87024?utm_campaign=

Elvis Costello Get Happy!! on Numbered Limited Edition 180g 45RPM 2LP Set from Mobile Fidelity

Costello and the Attractions’ 1980 Masterpiece Expands Rock Palette and Touches on Every Aspect of Classic Soul and R&B

High Fidelity: Half-Speed Mastered from the Original Master Tapes and Spread Over Two 45RPM LPs for Unprecedented Sound

Energetic, Inventive, Ironic, and Yes, Happy: Costello and Company Continue Creative Winning Streak

My Aim Is True, This Year’s Model, and Armed Forces Also Available on 180g LP from Mobile Fidelity





Elvis Costello and the Attractions’ masterful Get Happy!! is largely believed born of national scandal. While in a Holiday Inn bar, the English singer attempted to end an annoying conversation by baiting Stephen Stills with outrageous, offensive racial remarks about Ray Charles and James Brown. With everyone involved inebriated, the details are unclear, but the fallout—death threats, radio embargos, protests—is infamous. The upshot? Costello and company retreated, scrapped a planned record, and created the soulful genius that is Get Happy!!, the band’s fourth consecutive five-star effort.

Half-speed mastered from the original master tapes, and pressed on two 45RPM LPs to replicate the very first promotional pressing in the UK, the 1980 LP has never sounded better on any format. Rather than cram nearly 50 minutes of music and 20 songs onto a single record, Mobile Fidelity has gone the extra mile and back to the album's UK roots with two 45RPM discs. For the first time, listeners can home in on the record’s signature sound that relates to the decision to record the vocals in a studio’s glass strings room. In addition, the dimensions and images associated with Steve Nieve’s penetrating organ, Pete Thomas’ punchy drumming, and Costello’s bounding vocals know no limits. The music simply leaps off the proverbial page, the uptempo rhythms jumping and nimble bass lines kicking.

Clearly, the group is motivated, and the leader brings some of his very finest songs to the table, including “High Fidelity,” “Riot Act,” “Motel Matches,” and “The Imposter.” While some believe the drunken incident caused Costello to shelve a planned new-wave-leaning effort for the soul-stoked Get Happy!!, the vocalist claims that his ability to find so many great soul records in America from 1977 through 1979 inspired the group to change course. Whatever the cause, Get Happy!! is a start-to-finish wonder.

Paying homage to Northern soul, Motown, Stax, and Southern soul strains, and infused with smooth and gritty arrangements, Get Happy!! runs on an efficient R&B motor. Subtle tributes abound. “High Fidelity” quotes a Supremes song; “Love for Tender” borrows a Supremes riff; “Opportunity” tips its hat to Al Green; “Clowntime Is Over” bows to Curtis Mayfield. And two covers, of Sam & Dave’s “I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down” and the Merseybeats’ “I Stand Accused,” are recast as quick, R&B rave-ups. There’s not a misplaced note or bad step on this record. And for history buffs, the closing, searing ballad “Riot Act” is Costello’s response to his hypocritical critics and finger-pointers.

As essential as anything in Costello’s catalog, and one of the truly great records of the 1980s, you owe it to yourself to experience Get Happy!! in the supreme sonic fidelity that this numbered limited edition Mobile Fidelity double-LP pressing affords. For those intimately familiar with its contents, listening will be a revelation. And for fans that have never heard the record, prepare to be wowed.

Part of Mobile Fidelity’s Costello catalog restoration series, Get Happy!! will make you positively ecstatic. Order your lowest-numbered collectible copy from Music Direct today!

Elvis Costello Get Happy!! Track Listing:

1. "Love for Tender" – 1:57
2. "Opportunity" – 3:13
3. "The Imposter" – 1:58
4. "Secondary Modern" – 1:58
5. "King Horse" – 3:01
6. "Possession" – 2:03
7. "Men Called Uncle" – 2:17
8. "Clowntime Is Over" – 2:59
9. "New Amsterdam" – 2:12
10. "High Fidelity" – 2:28
11. "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down" – 2:06
12. "Black & White World" – 1:56
13. "5ive Gears in Reverse" – 2:38
14. "B Movie" – 2:04
15. "Motel Matches" – 2:30
16. "Human Touch" – 2:30
17. "Beaten to the Punch" – 1:49
18. "Temptation" – 2:33
19. "I Stand Accused"– 2:21
20. "Riot Act" – 3:35

[verbal gymnastics]

Given my ignorance, what is the difference to the sound if it is half speed mastered?

[Neil.]

I can't think of any reason for doing this, other than getting existing fans to buy the album yet again. It's not going to attract any new fans, that's for sure! I don't have the 'get every format' gene (I just want the songs), but some do, and this is exploiting them. And he's allowed to do that if he wants to - no-one is forcing anyone to buy this.

[cwr]

Maybe I'm a sucker, but nice new vinyl pressings of these records are exciting to me.

I hope that they keep doing these. I'd love to hear IbMePdErRoIoAmL, which Elvis always maintains sounded much better in the UK vinyl edition than on the Columbia Records LP...

[charliestumpy]

... ah, the good old days when we bought the vinyl cheaply on release, then bought a probably 12" single with which a vinyl copy of GH was given away ...

Then we bought a CD (whilst retaining our vinyls/cassettes). then we bought more CDs, especially the one with extra bonus disc.

I am buggered if I am going to buy a new vinyl probably digitally cocked-up.

I hope all enjoy their iTunes Beatles, even though it is cheaper/better to record your original vinyls etc.

We are so lucky to have so much choice.

[thepopeofpop]

... ah, the good old days when we bought the vinyl cheaply on release, then bought a probably 12" single with which a vinyl copy of GH was given away ...

Then we bought a CD (whilst retaining our vinyls/cassettes). then we bought more CDs, especially the one with extra bonus disc.

I am buggered if I am going to buy a new vinyl probably digitally cocked-up.

Mobile Fidelity don't do digital stuff - they use the original master tape.

They've already done MAIT, TYM and AF recently. The attraction is that most of these albums were not very good sounding in their original US release, and the good sounding original UK vinyl is probably hard to find nowadays.

There are still fans of the vinyl format, which is who these guys are catering to. I don't think that anyone should feel compelled to buy these releases, particularly because they might feel the need to "collect everything". That's their problem if they do, not Elvis'. I own every album EC has released, but I don't collect all the variations - I'm only interested in the actual music and not the 11 different sleeve variations on the original UK MAIT!

[bambooneedle]

Interesting. Anyone know which of these are the best vinyl recordings of the albums? (besides TYM). I have:

-Trust (Warner, F-Beat)
-King Of America (RCA, F-Beat)
-Goodbye Cruel World (Columbia CBS)
-Almost Blue (Warner, F-Beat)
-Armed Forces (Radarscope Records, Warner)
-Blood And Chocolate (IMP Records, a division of Demon Records)
-Punch The Clock (F-Beat)
-TYM (Columbia, or 'Costello' as it says on the perimeter of the red stickers on the vinyl instead of 'Columbia' as it says on GCW) - pretty certain this is the US release as it includes Radio Radio and ommits (I Don't want To Go To) Chelsea.

[wardo68]

Given my ignorance, what is the difference to the sound if it is half speed mastered?

Here's a pretty good explanation:

"Half speed mastering refers to the speed of mastering the original recording onto the master lacquer, which is then used to make the masters that press each LP. Many standard LPs are mastered at standard speed, which means that the master tape moves at the same speed as the original recording session and the master lacquer moves at 33 1/3 rpm... [With half speed mastering] there is twice as much time for the cutting stylus to cut every possible detail and delicate groove modulation, resulting in LPs where you can hear details and nuances on your favourite albums that you never heard before. Furthermore, mastering at half speed uses less power and as a result the cutting head amplifiers use only one fourth as much power, resulting in much greater head room, better dynamic range, frequency response and lower distortion."

[bambooneedle]

If there were ever an album that needed to be released on 2LPs instead of one it's Get Happy!! !!

[sulky lad]

I've got the promo double "EP" set of get happy on vinyl which I think has 5 songs a side ( makes my simple mathematical brain look rather good the way i divided 20 by 4 there !) but I've only played it once since I shelled out a kings ransom for them back in the late 80s at a record fair. However, I would consider buying the Mobile Fidelity recordings since I still prefer the sound of good quality vinyl. Sadly most of my EC LPs have been hammered on turntables of varying abilities to reproduce music over the years and I tend to treat my bootleg LPs with all due reverence though I often play sides 3 and 4 of 50 million Elvis Fans for the sheer excitement of the live show at Cleveland - which again sounds much better than the various boot CDs and dime uploads that have surfaced. I'm sure there must be a mobile fidelity outlet in the UK - and if I found it, I'd be able to drop heavy hints for Christmas

[verbal gymnastics]

Thanks for your post wardo.

I wish I has the time to listen to music properly at home. Most of the time I have to listen to it whilst I'm driving which is not the best sonic experience.

And I've found the needle slips off to easily from the turntable when I try to play vinyl in the car...

[sulky lad]

VG says

And I've found the needle slips off to easily from the turntable when I try to play vinyl in the car...

I've ridden with him before - you're lucky as a passenger not to be hanging from the roof, let alone needles slipping on vinyl !

[Pigalle]

I'm sure there must be a mobile fidelity outlet in the UK - and if I found it, I'd be able to drop heavy hints for Christmas

MAIT is available from amazon.com
TYM and AF are available from hmv.com

It might be cheaper, though, ordering through amazon.com or amazon.ca if they are still available through them.

[funkygibbon666]

The 3 Mobile Fidelity so far were truly excellent, from the original anologue masters. anything that can give Porky Peckham's work a boot get my thumbs up.

Its about time someone aped the promo version and put GH out on 2 LPs. These are audophile releases for vinyl junkies. There's no aiming to get fresh fans on board here.

Though the US tracklistings with UK packaging on TYM and AF was a bit dumb

[charliestumpy]

We love all of our Get happy versions on vinyl/CD, and agree that we do not need to buy another.

Well done Elvis/Seasonal/perennial greetings to all.

We confess to having many vinyl MF albums vinally enjoyed on LP12.

[cwr]

We love all of our Get happy versions on vinyl/CD, and agree that we do not need to buy another.

"We" may agree w/r/t "need", but I sure wanna buy that new one. And I will, and I won't mind a bit, 'cuz I think it'll be nice.

[Pigalle]

I've got the promo double "EP" set of get happy on vinyl which I think has 5 songs a side ( makes my simple mathematical brain look rather good the way i divided 20 by 4 there !) but I've only played it once since I shelled out a kings ransom for them back in the late 80s at a record fair.

Never knew that it was issued like this. Since learning this fact, I have just bought a copy for $30 as it is my all time favourite Elvis record.

[Pigalle]

From Music Direct e-mail received today:

Pre-order Now - Shipping In May
Costello and the Attractions' 1980 Masterpiece Expands Rock Palette and Touches on Every Aspect of Classic Soul and R&B
Elvis Costello
Get Happy!!
(Numbered, Limited Edition 180g 2LP) (Mobile Fidelity) $39.99

Elvis Costello and the Attractions' masterful Get Happy!! is largely believed born of national scandal. While in a Holiday Inn bar, the English singer attempted to end an annoying conversation by baiting Stephen Stills with outrageous, offensive racial remarks about Ray Charles and James Brown. With everyone involved inebriated, the details are unclear, but the fallout-death threats, radio embargos, protests-is infamous. The upshot? Costello and company retreated, scrapped a planned record, and created the soulful genius that is Get Happy!!, the band's fourth consecutive five-star effort.

Note: available for $30.21 from amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Get-Happy-Elvis-C ... 856&sr=1-1

[Top balcony]

...Costello and company retreated, scrapped a planned record...

This has raised my curiosity, can anyone expand on the nature of the aborted recording?

Colin Top Balcony

[migdd]

EC and the Attractions had recorded Armed Forces-ish versions of some of the songs that would eventually end up on Get Happy! Those versions were scrapped for the more soulful arrangements that ended up on the record. Most (all?) of the alternate versions have been released on the Ryko and Rhino reissues and detailed in the liner notes.

[Top balcony]

Many thanks.

Like many of the other correspondents on this thread I've been sucked into purchasing multiple copies of the same product, so I'll go back to the Rhino / Rykos and refresh my memory from the bonus discs.

Best wishes

Colin Top Balcony

[sulky lad]

re Reissue of Get Happy on 2 x 45 rpm discs by Mobile Fidelity
Nice review here -
http://www.soundstagedirect.com/elvis-c ... ords.shtml

[strangerinthehouse]

Has anybody here actually ordered this? I'd be curious to hear how vastly different from the original vinyl it sounds.

I have vinyl copy from Israel I think and I love it. Just wondering if it's worth the $40.

[johnfoyle]

http://www.musicangle.com/album.php?id=970

Elvis Costello's Soul Album Gets Double 45 Treatment!
by Michael Fremer
June 07, 2011

While American soul music— northern urban and southern rural—and UK-via-the-Caribbean-derived Ska course through the veins of the fourth Elvis Costello and the Attractions album, the flesh thankfully remains white limey.

The album may be a one off diversion from the band's natural creative path but it doesn't go off the cliff. The drum-centric arrangements are relatively spare and to the rhythmic point. Guitars accent but don't dominate the landscape.

If you don't listen carefully to "High Fidelity" you might not even notice its Detroit roots. Even the cover of Sam and Dave's "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down" doesn't outwardly sound like something emanating from Stax/Volt. If you don't pay attention to Elvis's superb overdubbed background singing on the frantic "Love For Tender" you might not recognize the classic soul gestures. Most obvious are the Ska rhythms and echoey guitar production of "B Movie" and "Human Touch" and the Nashville melodrama in "Motel Matches."

Once you latch on to what's going on though, the antecedents of just about every track come sharply into focus but like the vocals, they remain back in the mix.

The album's hard nosed intensity is unlike any of Costello's previous efforts. The worldly political commentary on Armed Forces and on earlier albums is gone, replaced by more personal matters that don't tolerate irony in either the writing or especially the singing.

Elvis sings with an unrelenting ferocity rarely heard from him before or since. When he goes falsetto at the end of "Beaten to the Punch" he expresses exasperation anger and hurt. He rarely lingers on a lengthy vibrato note.

The song line-up is intense, ranging from affirmations like "Clowntime is Over" to the usual male/female struggles "Possession," "Man Called Uncle" and "Riot Act." One of my favorites is "King Horse," a song about the lousy job of being a waitress. There are twenty songs here but even more gems from these sessions had to be cut. Songs like "Girls Talk" (excellently covered by Dave Edmunds), "Getting Mighty Crowded" and the uncharacteristically weep "Losing You," among others.

It was an astonishing burst of creative energy on all sides, including Nick Lowe's production. However, you really need to read the fine print on this one, written by Lowe just below the track listing for the original's side two. He's goofing on you and he knows it.

Lowe writes that he and Elvis "...talked long and hard" about the wisdom of cramming ten loud rock songs onto each side of a single record. We all know what happens when you do that. Levels have to drop, bass gets rolled off, and often the results, already compromised, need to be dynamically compressed.

'We are proud that we can reassure hi-fi enthusiasts and/or people who never bought a record before 1967 that with the inclusion of this extra music time that they would find no loss of sound quality due to groove cramming as the record nears the end of each face. Now get happy."

Come on Nick!

There's a loss of sound quality due to groove cramming on every record to some degree, particularly when you approach the smaller groove radii near the center. Highs roll off.

Despite what Nick Lowe wrote, I knew the record was sonically seriously compromised because I got to hear the very, very, very limited edition double 45rpm white jacket promo edition that went out to a few radio stations and members of Costello's entourage.

Back in 1980 when this was released, I was living in Los Angeles. An acquaintance of mine worked as a tour stage manager for various bands and he got a copy and played it for me. Going back to the single LP edition, American, British and Japanese was like looking through the wrong end of a telescope. Compared to that magical double 45 the single 33 1/3 sounds small and constricted. You can hear a great , spacious and audacious recording looking for and not getting the breathing room it deserved.

I lusted for that promo record. I never forgot it. I lost contact with my L.A. friend but not with that record!

So when Mobile Fidelity announced its Elvis Costello reissue series I told them they had to issue Get Happy!! as a double 45rpm set. They hadn't heard about that promo and they like to reference their work against an original. So what to do?

I got ahold of my old friend in Los Angeles and he still had the record! Would he be willing to lend it to Mobile Fidelity? Yes!

In addition, when the album originally came out in the U.K. the cover artist had playfully painted on the front and back covers "the dreaded ringwear." It's obviously fake, but the clowns at Columbia Records in America worried that consumers would return the record because of the "ring wear." How stupid!

I suggested using the original artwork but I had to prove to Mo-Fi that the original cover had painted "ring wear."So, when this double 45 finally arrived I could not wait to hear for the first time in thirty one years Get Happy!! unleashed! Was it worth the effort, the time and the expense to produce this as a double 45?

If you've grown up on the original you will be astonished by the width and depth of the picture, by the dynamic thrust, by the cleanly separated instruments, by the weight of the bass, the shimmer of the cymbals and the way the effects Lowe inserts puncture the air. You'll also be able to hear Costello's robust lead singing and his carefully rendered background vocals with greater spatial and textural clarity than you've ever heard them. If you've never heard this album you'll just find it overwhelmingly fantastic in every way. If it doesn't get your body moving, you are paralyzed.

And if you think the CD edition you bought eliminated all of the cramming issues, well, you're in for a big surprise. Mobile Fidelity got everything off the tape and into the grooves in ways the digital edition simply does not.

So no, this is not inexpensive for a pop record, but it's among Elvis's finest in every way and finally, thirty plus years later we finally get to hear what Elvis, Nick and the others heard in the studio.

Will Get Happy!! make you happy? Count on it. Most highly recommended!

[Who Shot Sam?]

Has anybody here actually ordered this? I'd be curious to hear how vastly different from the original vinyl it sounds.

I have vinyl copy from Israel I think and I love it. Just wondering if it's worth the $40.

I'd say it's about a 1000% improvement on the Columbia vinyl. Better in every way.