WARREN ZEVON - EXCITABLE BOY (MOFI 2xLP)

Sourced from the original analog master tapes and pressed on dead-quiet vinyl, Mobile Fidelity's numbered-edition 180g 45RPM 2LP set elevates the best-selling album of Zevon's distinguished career to audiophile status. Co-produced by Browne and Waddy Wachtel – and featuring contributions by members of Fleetwood Mac plus Linda Ronstadt, J.D. Souther, Leland Sklar, and Browne – the platinum-certified record now plays with a verve and explosivity that match its subject matter. Listeners will experience wide separation between the instruments; full-range dynamics that underscore the depth of the arrangements; sterling transparency that draws a through-line to the original sessions at the Sound Factory; warmth on a par with the finest analog recordings; presence that elevates the body and tenor of Zevon's vocals; and an openness and balance resulting from the freedom that Browne and Wachtel afforded recording engineer Greg Ladanyi.

That lenience coincides with the record's primary themes and speaks to the freewheeling spirit in which it was made. Excitable Boy delightfully teeters on the verge of chaos – and, often, causes us to question what the zany singer-songwriter has gotten into (and what he is going on about). Not yet two years removed from his critically acclaimed self-titled major-label debut, Zevon had already established a fabled reputation for debauchery and grown more perceptive about the twisted underbelly and self-destructive nature of U.S. politics and society.

The singer's astuteness – and lethal combination of the personal and public – proves intoxicating. Excitable Boy comes on as a seamless collection of nine hard-boiled stories owing to a tradition established by Raymond Chandler, continued by Hunter S. Thompson, and carried into the 21st century by "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" creator Vince Gilligan. We may want to close our eyes and turn away from his reports, but Zevon makes doing so impossible. The protagonists' actions, behaviors, appetites, and decisions are too intriguing and forthright; their impact hits too close to home. We mingle, stare, draw closer. In a perverse way, Excitable Boy is our shared carnage – a wickedly funny and ever-germane pile of wreckage."