"Chicago Transit Authority" MFSL Audiophile Mint

$

128

"Chicago Transit Authority" MFSL Audiophile Mint

ORIGINAL MASTER RECORDINGS

MFSL Half Speed Mastered Audiophile

Pressed on virgin Super Vinyl by JVC Japan

Mint vinyl

From my personal collection here is a chance to own another great Mobile Fidelity OMR release. The vinyl is mint and cover is VG+. The photo for the listing is my actual cover. Click on either photo above to view in detail.

I have listened to this LP set for the first time in over 20 years. It is now as clean and crystal clear as when first issued 25+ years ago. It another true testament to the quality of MFSL releases.

This album has been stored all these years in an outer vinyl LP sleeve. It will be shipped in a new re-sealable archival sleeve to protect your investment. It will be boxed in an oversize LP shipping box to ensure it arrives in perfect shape.

Having morphed--some would argue devolved--into a predictable ballad machine by the '80s, it's good to be reminded of Chicago's original artistic ethos and vibrant promise. And what better place to start than their spectacular 1969 debut. Chicago weren't yet the '70s hit-singles factory they would shortly become, and CTA showcases a band whose muscular musicianship and creative restlessness fostered two LPs worth of music that was as aggressive and far-ranging as its singles were friendly and inviting. Tellingly, the hits showcased here--"Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?" "Beginnings," "Questions 67 and 68," and their rhythmically pumped cover of the Spencer Davis Group's "I'm a Man"--were often edited down from the original collection's suite-heavy structure. But those familiar cuts belie the downright progressive and angular nature of much of the rest, which fuses Terry Kath's neo-psychedelic guitar (which careens to noisy, feedback-laden Hendrixesque extremes on "Free Form Guitar") to one of rock's pioneering horn sections with enough experimentalism ("Poem 58") that it frequently overwhelms their undeniable genius with a pop song. Chicago would seldom sound so adventurous after this, one of rock's greatest debut albums. --Jerry McCulley