Painted From Memory

Limited Mobile Fidelity hybrid SACD pressing mastered from the original master tapes. Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach's Painted from Memory endures as an extraordinary exhibition of prime music making, gorgeous arranging, and naked emotion. Having transpired after the pair teamed up on 'God Give Me Strength' for a film soundtrack (and the closing track here), the album has since gone on to become one of the most respected - and admired - projects of each artist's considerable careers. It's expert employment of melody and harmony imparts a timelessness that stretches back to pop's golden age and icons such as Roy Orbison, Ray Charles, and Frank Sinatra. Further boosted by meticulous production, it has long called out for audiophile treatment. Mobile Fidelity's SACD reissue brings it all full circle. Mobile Fidelity's hybrid SACD of Painted from Memory transforms the 1998 set into an essential component of any library. Always an effort that rewarded solitary listening, it now breathes with ravishing openness, reveals crystalline detail, unfolds against jet-back backgrounds, mesmerizes with a rainbow of textures, and constantly engages with it's impossible smoothness. For the first time, the scope of the intricacies, nuances, and phrasings embedded in Bacharach's meticulous compositions can be experienced in full. The orbit of the bridges, refrains, and codas beguiles the senses. Ditto the poetic reach of Costello's singing and lyrics. Indeed, the level of care and concern invested into every passage of Painted from Memory is immediately gleaned by the ravishing sonics afforded on this collectable edition.