In 2024, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab began releasing six of Joni Mitchell's most iconic albums, making them all available not only as hybrid SACDs, but also in MoFi's ne plus ultra analog statement format, their UltraDisc One-Step 180 gram LP set. The series began with Ladies of the Canyon (1970), then moved on to Joni's movingly introspective Blue (1971), and now they've released the latest in the series, her incomparable classic Court and Spark (1974). Upcoming titles in the release schedule will include For the Roses (1972), Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975), and Hejira (1976), though not necessarily in that order. I think it's fairly intuitive to surmise that Blue and Court and Spark are the finest examples of Joni Mitchell's work, with Blue probably the overall fan favorite, and Court and Spark undeniably the most accessible. Blue might have touched everyone's soul, but Court and Spark brought Joni a level of critical acclaim, popular recognition, and commercial success she likely never imagined possible.
Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step LP set for Court and Spark was sourced from the original analog master tapes, and was remastered using MoFi's GAIN 2 system by Krieg Wunderlich assisted by Shawn R. Britton at Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab in Sebastopol, California. The analog tapes were transferred to DSD 256, then lacquers were cut for LP production. Court and Spark's pair of 45 rpm LPs were pressed on Neotech's Supervinyl at Fidelity Record Pressing, where every step of their production was overseen by Rick Hashimoto. The LPs were then inserted into MoFi branded rice paper inner sleeves to prevent scratching and minimize static buildup. UltraDisc's packaging is fully realized at Stoughton Printing in California, where each sleeved LP is inserted into a graphically striking, gold foil-stamped inner jacket that's then inserted into a heavy, gold foil-stamped outer slipcase. The crisp album artwork is sourced from the Asylum label vaults, and the UltraDisc LPs are secured inside their inner jackets with heavy paperboard gatefold sleeves to preserve each LP's integrity. A full-sized gatefold insert replicates the original album art and liner notes, and an additional insert contains an informative and interesting essay from music journalist and critic Bob Gendron that details Joni's creative process that brought Court and Spark to fruition. The UltraDisc represents the culmination of Mobile Fidelity's perfectionist approach to the manufacture of exceptionally good-sounding LPs, and Court and Spark is strictly limited to 5000 copies worldwide. You can order a copy from MoFi's webstore HERE.
Joni Mitchell, Court and Spark. (2) 45 rpm UltraDisc One-Step LPs, $125 MSRP
Beginning with Joni Mitchell's 1968 debut, Song to a Seagull, she recorded and released a new album in each successive year. Following the November 1972 release of For the Roses, that pattern was abandoned; Joni's musical tastes were changing, and for her next record, she wanted to distill an amalgam of her distinctively confessional approach to songwriting with a growing interest in jazz idioms. As a result, she spent most of 1973 in Hollywood's A&M Studios writing, recording, and perfecting the tracks that would become Court and Spark. Mitchell self-produced the album, and worked with engineer Henry Lewy to build a core cast of supporting players that included saxophonist Tom Scott and his L.A. Express, which also featured bassist Max Bennett, drummer John Guerin, keyboardist Joe Sample, and guitarist Larry Carlton. Cameos abounded from a diverse group of musicians that included the likes of guitarists Robbie Robertson, José Feliciano, and Wayne Perkins, along with jazz bassists Wilton Felder, Jim Hughart, and trumpeter Chuck Findley. David Crosby and Graham Nash provided background vocals, and even Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong were enlisted to provide a touch of off-kilter comedy. And of course, Joni Mitchell provided her trademarked vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, and clavinet.
Court and Spark was released on Asylum Records in January, 1974, to immediate critical acclaim and commercial success. It quickly became Joni Mitchell's biggest-selling album, reaching the number two position on the Billboard album charts, going double-platinum in the process. Album sales were propelled by a trio of memorable singles, "Raised on Robbery," "Help Me," and "Free Man in Paris." Virtually every song on the album was radio-friendly, with songs like "Car on a Hill," "People's Parties/The Same Situation," "Down to You," and "Just Like This Train" getting frequent airplay. The album's only cover, Annie Ross and Wardell Gray's "Twisted" (made famous by Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross) featured an appearance by Cheech & Chong to add some jazzily-inspired comic relief to the album's closer.
Court and Spark may very well be Joni Mitchell's Masterpiece
Click on my name in the header above to see the full complement of components that occupy my dual audio setups. My usual all-analog evaluation system features a pair of XSA Labs Vanguard compact monitor loudspeakers. They offer an updated homage to classic British monitor designs like the LS3/5A, and run in tandem with a pair of Caldera 12 subwoofers to add a few extra octaves to the overall bass response. A ProJect Classic EVO turntable that's mounted with an Ortofon Quintet Bronze moving coil cartridge provided playback of Court and Spark's UltraDisc 45 rpm LPs. That signal is fed to a PS Audio Stellar phono preamplifier, which forwards it to a PrimaLuna EVO 300 tube integrated amplifier that now features matched sets of RAY Reserve and Select tubes. This combination has elevated my LP playback to an entirely new universe of analog goodness.
The pair of UltraDisc LPs from Fidelity Record Pressing were flawless and pristine, with razor-flat, beautifully glossy, defect-free surfaces that yielded no ticks or groove noise of any kind. The Supervinyl™ used by Fidelity for these pressings is aptly named: Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step LPs are easily among the most whisper-quiet discs to ever grace my turntable! When the needle drops onto side one, Joni's piano opening on the title track emerges from a totally black background of absolute silence that's unlike any version of this record I've ever heard. I had multiple Court and Spark LP pressings on hand, including an Asylum label original, a 2009 repress from Warner/Rhino, and a Bernie Grundman remastered repress from 2022 that was part of Warner/Rhino's The Asylum Years: 1972-1975 box set—which I previously thought was the best of the bunch. No longer—MoFi's new UltraDisc set has wowed me with the kind of flawless playback that lifts it far above any version I've heard, on any system. The One-Step process is a couple of generations closer to the master tape, and that allows the LPs to portray this music with previously unheard levels of nuance, detail, enhanced realism, and increased clarity. MoFi's UltraDisc LPs have forced me to reconsider what's possible from analog playback. I'm an old school analog guy from way back, and no stranger to one step pressings, but I've rarely heard anything that can touch the elegance, delicacy, and incomparable realism I'm hearing from these 45 rpm UltraDiscs. $125 may seem like a lot for a pair of LPs, but when they bring with them the kind of transcendent playback of MoFi's Court and Spark, the cost in audiophile terms seems totally negligible.
Back in the day, when this music was still new to everyone's ears, album-oriented rock radio took advantage of Court and Spark's track sequencing and frequently programmed the first three album tracks back-to-back-to-back. Such that hearing "Court and Spark," "Help Me," and "Free Man in Paris" became the expected, and not hearing all three simultaneously was seriously disappointing. The same was true with "People's Parties" and "The Same Situation"—there are audiophiles who complain about how 45 rpm LPs require too frequent side changes, and how tracks are broken apart from side-to-side with a certain randomness. It's definitely a necessary trade-off for the significant uptick in quality that 45 rpm LPs bring to the table (pun intended). But on MoFi's UltraDisc LPs, you get the same side one trio and side two duo of tracks that so enamored me in my youth, and for me, at least—it really takes me back! Many thanks to Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, Music Direct, and especially John Wood of MoFi—their UltraDisc One-Step Court and Spark is easily among the finest audiophile LPs in my collection, and comes very highly recommended!
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
All images courtesy of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab.
