Thursday, February 24, 2022
Care to hear “Eruption” like you’ve never heard it before? Mobile Fidelity is releasing high-quality reissues of the first six Van Halen albums on 45 RPM LPs and hybrid Super Audio CDs (SACD).
Limited to 10,000 numbered pressings, UltraDisc One-Step 180g albums—45 RPM double LPs—will be produced from the original analog tapes, pressed at RTI on MoFi SuperVinyl. The numbered-edition SACDs will come packaged in a mini-gatefold sleeve and will also be produced from the original tapes. Housed in a deluxe box, each set features special foil-stamped jackets.
Van Halen's 1978 debut will be released in the fourth quarter of this year. Van Halen II, Women and Children First, Fair Warning, Diver Down and 1984 will follow.
“Fans will experience Van Halen’s original blend of raw power and Hollywood flair like never before through these limited-edition, audiophile-grade One-Step vinyl boxed sets,” said Jim Davis, President of Music Direct and Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab.
Mobile Fidelity acknowledged that Van Halen’s early albums already sound great thanks to Ted Templeman’s production work and Donn Landee’s engineering, pledging that “the band’s records will sound more vivid, present, and entertaining than ever.”
It will certainly beat the hell out of the 8-tracks we've been listening to since junior high.