The Grateful Dead - Blues For Allah

1975 album marks Grateful Dead's rebirth, spiritualism and energy

Meticulously mastered from the original master tapes

Limited to 4,000 numbered copies pressed at RTI

Mobile Fidelity 180g 45RPM 2LP vinyl set features sublime dynamics, clarity and detail

"If you get confused, listen to the music play," counsels Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia on Blues for Allah. Surely, better advice has never been given. The band's only release during a self-imposed hiatus that lasted nearly 20 months, and the effort that witnessed the welcome return of percussionist Mickey Hart, the 1975 album marks the rebirth of a signature naturalism, spiritualism, and energy that had begun to fray because of ceaseless touring and financial pressures. And as experienced on this audiophile-caliber reissue, such inspired élan and elevated performance facets — embraced literally and figuratively on Bob Weir's hallmark "The Music Never Stopped" anthem — achieve transcendent heights.

Mastered from the original master tapes, pressed at RTI, and strictly limited to 4,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's 180-gram 45 RPM 2LP reissue possesses seemingly limitless dynamics, reference — grade presence, expansive soundstages, crystalline transparency, and a wealth of previously obscured information. Strongly informed by jazz themes and organic progressions, the album's arrangements unfold as a series of interlocking puzzle pieces that, together, comprise an adventurous landscape informed by compound structures, angelic harmonies, chiming tones, and brilliant colors. Every member's vocals resound with tube-like clarity and remain entirely free of artificial ceilings or unintended blurring.

Side 1