Van Halen - Fair Warning (One Step) / 45RPM 2LP Mobile Fidelity

The song titles on Van Halen's aptly named album “Fair Warning” don't lie: Songs like “Unchained”, “Mean Street”, “Push Comes To Shove” and “One Foot Out The Door” are good examples of the mood the band conveys

on the double platinum-selling album released in 1981 – the nastiest, darkest and wildest album in the group's legendary career. It took Van Halen and producer Ted Templeman less than two weeks to create this sound.

The band moved further away from the live-on-the-floor approach of their earlier albums and successfully employed overdubs. The result: a dense, multi-layered architecture that underscores the powerful tenor of the songs

and comes across more vividly than ever on this MoFi reference edition – as does the iconic cover artwork, which is based on William Kurelek's haunting painting “The Maze”. The sunnier visual design of Van Halen's earlier

album covers gives way here to something eerie and tormented, which is reflected in the music. The band members are not portrayed in glamorous shots, but in serious black-and-white portraits. Hard, aggressive, relentless:

“Fair Warning” comes across like a series of bare-knuckle punches to the solar plexus and impresses with fitting lyrics.

Although not a concept album, the concise album revolves around themes such as the hard life on the streets and the struggle to survive amid bleak prospects. Singer David Lee Roth is said to have written many of the early lyrics

after traveling to Haiti and witnessing extreme poverty there. The characters and situations in “Fair Warning” reflect despair and danger. “Fair Warning” is definitely not a carefree Californian beach party. Although he was angry and

frustrated during the recording sessions, guitarist Eddie Van Halen uses the powerful arrangements as a playground for his seemingly unlimited potential. Backed by a top-notch rhythm section and a fired-up Roth, he plays with an

almost incomprehensible combination of punk intensity, technical finesse, lyrical fluidity and unbridled emotion. The virtuoso increasingly clashed with Templeton during the recording sessions, seeking a freedom in the studio that he

felt he was being denied. Although “Fair Warning” sold less than Van Halen's previous albums, for many fans it remains the album that most embodies the band's power – Roth's manic energy and tongue-twisting humor, Alex Van Halen's

rhythmic heartbeat bombast and Michael Anthony's clear bass lines. The album was released at a time when the new wave movement was just gaining momentum and was a warning shot from a band determined to stay one step ahead

and prove that no one could hold a candle to them. More than four decades later, “Fair Warning” is still sounding the alarm.

Mobile Fidelity's numbered, strictly limited edition of 5,000 double LP box has been remastered from the original tapes at MoFi Studios in California especially for this release and pressed on 180-gram SuperVinyl (45 RPM) using the sonically

superior UltraDisc One-Step process. Housed in a deluxe slipcase, it features special foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendor of the recording: enormous realism and thrilling presence with unbridled clarity,

dynamics and attention to detail. Thanks to the MFSL One-Step version, “Fair Warning” offers more rock feeling than ever before – turn up the volume!

Title

LP 1

Side A

1.    Mean Street
2.    Dirty Movies

Side B
3.    Sinner’s Swing!
4.    Hear About It Later

LP 2

Side C
5.    Unchained
6.    Push Comes To Shove

Side D
7.    So This Is Love?
8.    Sunday Afternoon In The Park
9.    One Foot Out The Door