Murray Head - Nigel Lived

• Artist approved 45th Anniversary Edition
• 100% AAA analog mastering from the original master tapes!
• Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
• Double 45-RPM LPs for extreme sound quality
• Dead-quiet 180-gram vinyl pressed at RTI
• Old-style gatefold jacket plus authentic 8-page book printed by Stoughton Printing

"Head's album is an incredibly detailed recording, with city-scene audio-vérité sound effects and unorthodox instrumentation like steel drums, four-man saxophone sections, and an honest-to-god church organ. It's also too long to be crammed onto a single piece of vinyl, as it was in its first release. The reissue provides clarity that the original never could-and provides a crackle-free background for the album's multiple pianissimo stretches-and the analog transfer from a one-generation-removed tape is as good as one could hope for, as the original master is missing." — Ned Lannamann, The Portland Mercury, January 31, 2018. Read the entire review here.

Nigel Lived is a groundbreaking classic and one of the boldest and inventive albums of all time. Recorded by the great recording engineer Phill Brown, Nigel Lived hearkens back to the golden era of all-analog recording, a sonic and musical masterpiece that every music lover and audiophile simply must have.

IR's 45 RPM double LP set is an extraordinary value at just $38. It's packaged in a beautiful film-laminated gatefold jacket with an amazing reproduction of the 8-page book from the original LP release that represents the fictional Nigel's diary.  

Nigel Lived was mastered 100% analog by Kevin Gray at CoHEARent Audio from recording engineer Phill Brown's original master tapes. The sound quality on these tapes is a revelation, with deep but tuneful bass, sweet highs, gorgeous vocals and VERY WIDE dynamics! Murray and the musicians put so many fascinating sounds and textures down, and the tapes are simply stunning!

Intervention early on decided that Nigel's re-release had to be a 45 RPM 2LP set to preserve the magnificent sonics Murray, Phill and Co. put on tape and make the best-sounding Nigel possible. Nigel's original vinyl release was very challenging to cut as a single 33 RPM LP with side 1 at over 22 minutes and side 2 at nearly 27 minutes of run time! There's no doubt, especially on side 2 that levels had to be dropped and the bass had to be filtered on the original LP. Our 45 RPM cuts required no sonic compromises of any kind, so people can hear Nigel at his absolute best for the very first time on his 45th birthday!

Nigel's original LP art has been restored by IR's Tom Vadakan. The old-style, "tip-on" LP jacket and 8-page book is printed by Stoughton Printing.

The Hybrid SACD is mastered directly from analog tape to DSD, and will be housed in a super jewel box.