Grateful Dead - American Beauty (Hybrid SACD, Ultradisc UHR)
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Bass, Guitar, Piano, Vocals – Phil Lesh
Drums – Bill Kreutzmann
Guitar, Pedal Steel Guitar [Pedal Steel], Piano, Vocals – Jerry Garcia
Guitar, Vocals – Bob Weir
Harmonica, Vocals – Pig Pen (Ron McKernan)
Percussion – Mickey Hart
Written by Robert Hunter
1 Hybrid SACD, Ultradisc UHR
Limited numbered edition
Stereo
Studio
Label : MOFI
Original Label : Warner Bros
Recorded August–September 1970 at Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco
Produced by The Grateful Dead
Remastered by Krieg Wunderlich
Originally released in 1970
Reissued in 2014
Tracks:
- Box of Rain
- Friend of the Devil
- Sugar Magnolia
- Operator
- Candyman
- Ripple
- Brokedown Palace
- Till the Morning Comes
- Attics of My Life
- Truckin’
Awards:
Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - Rated 261/500!
Rolling Stone 2015 Readers' Poll: The 10 Best Jam Bands: The Grateful Dead Rated 1st!
1000 Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die - Ranked 190
Reviews:
“With 1970's Workingman's Dead, the Grateful Dead went through an overnight metamorphosis, turning abruptly from tripped-out free-form rock toward sublime acoustic folk and Americana. Taking notes on vocal harmonies from friends Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the Dead used the softer statements of their fourth studio album as a subtle but moving reflection on the turmoil, heaviness, and hope America's youth was facing as the idealistic '60s ended. American Beauty was recorded just a few months after its predecessor, both expanding and improving on the bluegrass, folk, and psychedelic country explorations of Workingman's Dead with some of the band's most brilliant compositions. The songs here have a noticeably more relaxed and joyous feel. Having dived headfirst into this new sound with the previous album, the bandmembers found the summit of their collaborative powers here, with lyricist Robert Hunter penning some of his most poetic work, Jerry Garcia focusing more on gliding pedal steel than his regular electric lead guitar work, and standout lead vocal performances coming from Bob Weir (on the anthem to hippie love "Sugar Magnolia"), Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (on the husky blues of "Operator"), and Phil Lesh (on the near-perfect opening tune, "Box of Rain"). This album also marked the beginning of what would become a long musical friendship between Garcia and Dave Grisman, whose mandolin playing adds depth and flavor to tracks like the outlaw country-folk of "Friend of the Devil" and the gorgeously devotional "Ripple." American Beauty eventually spawned the band's highest charting single -- "Truckin'," the greasy blues-rock tribute to nomadic counterculture -- but it also contained some of their most spiritual and open-hearted sentiments ever, their newfound love of intricate vocal arrangements finding pristine expression on the lamenting "Brokedown Palace" and the heavenly nostalgia and gratitude of "Attics of My Life." While the Dead eventually amassed a following so devoted that following the band from city to city became the center of many people’s lives, the majority of the band's magic came in the boundless heights it reached in its live sets but rarely managed to capture in the studio setting. American Beauty is a categorical exception to this, offering a look at the Dead transcending even their own exploratory heights and making some of their most powerful music by examining their most gentle and restrained impulses. It’s easily the masterwork of their studio output, and a strong contender for the best music the band ever made, even including the countless hours of live shows captured on tape in the decades that followed.” AllMusic Review by Fred Thomas
Ultra High-Resolution (UHR) is a dual-layer hybrid SACD recorded with Direct Stream Digital Technology at a sampling rate of 11.2 MHZ and a frequency response of DC to 100KHz. In addition, a high-precision down-conversion is utilized for the CD layer (16bit/44.1kHz) to preserve the sonic integrity of the original DSD capture. The result: State-of-the-art sound on any machine that can play either standard compact discs or SACDs.
Ratings :
AllMusic : 5 / 5 , Discogs : 4,53 / 5