Linda Ronstadt – Prisoner in Disguise – 45RPM 180g 2LP Mofi Vinyl

Sourced from the original analog master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, and reissued to celebrate Elektra 75, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition 180g 45RPM 2LP set presents the Top 5 album with extra groove space via 45RPM speed for the first time. This special 50th anniversary version plays with reference-caliber definition, depth, and dimensionality. The definitive vinyl edition of Prisoner in Disguise, it lifts prior veils that impeded the gorgeous singing and spectacular craftsmanship gracing the 11 songs.

The elevated degrees of clarity, presence, and separation exceed those of even Mobile Fidelity’s long-out-of-print 33RPM reissue. Vocals — often the most difficult instrument to faithfully portray — resonate with superb tonality, openness, and naturalism. Here, there’s practically nothing between you and Ronstadt’s whippoorwill deliveries. Her wide-spanning range and varied subtleties — vibrato, hiccups, shivers, falsetto fades — come across with rich, transparent detail. They affirm why Prisoner in Disguise is one of the four consecutive albums she made that sold a million or more copies, making her the first female artist to achieve that feat.

Each aspect of the record reveals how and why Ronstadt crashed through the glass ceiling not only with commercial and critical success, but by attaining then-unprecedented recognition in the form of national stories in the likes of Rolling Stone and Newsweek. Collaborating for the third time with producer Peter Asher, Ronstadt turns to her career-long strengths — interpretative covers, roots-based music, aching balladry — and seamlessly jibes with a Hall of Fame-worthy cast. James Taylor, Kenny Edwards, Herb Pedersen, JD Souther, David Grisman, and Russ Kunkel are some of the elite musicians along for the ride. David Campbell handles string arrangement and conducting duties.

Everyone works toward a common and sensible goal: Spotlighting, shading, and complementing Ronstadt’s singing. Playing with an all-for-one mindset so the meanings and emotions she pulls from every song get top billing — and with a selfless restraint that helps expose the kernels of truth and beautiful melodies in indelible tunes by the likes of Neil Young, Lowell George, Jimmy Cliff, and Taylor. Few, if any, pop-rock singers ever exhibited adaptive skills on a par with that of the Arizona native. Her contemporaries ensure she has the ideal settings in which to maneuver.

It all begins with the swirling rustic charm on Young’s “Love Is a Rose,” a banjo-picked rendition that went to the Top 5 of the Billboard Country chart and establishes the vocal control, command, and smoothness Ronstadt demonstrates throughout the album. As further confirmation of her crossover appeal and boundless diversity, the B-side  — a catchy, soulful, strum-and-jangle take on the Motown smash “Heat Wave” — garnered more attention and landed in the Top 5 of the Hot 100 chart. Adorned with organ swells and contemplative drama, Ronstadt’s memorable reading of another Motown staple, “Tracks of My Tears,” served as the third single and landed another Top 5 position, this one on the Adult Contemporary chart.

Successful hits aside, the timelessness of Prisoner in Disguise owes to its deeper cuts and Ronstadt’s all-in investment on material that sounds expressly written for her. Consider the mellow yet greasy and slightly sassy run through Little Feat’s “Roll Um Easy.” Or the forlorn version of Taylor’s “Hey Mister, That’s Me Up on the Jukebox,” its longing pedal-steel passages and tucked-and-pointed piano notes framing Ronstadt’s from-the-diaphragm phrasing with flawless precision. And delve into her startling version of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” Ronstadt using the full capacity of her range but never overdoing it and finishing with a transition into a higher register that doubles as a template for all country- and Americana-leaning pop singers who follow.

That poignant performance, and a tender duet with Emmylou Harris on “The Sweetest Gift” — arguably the album’s finest moment — hints at the future Trio album she’d record with her celebrated peers in the late 80s. Ronstadt’s knack for harmony, melody, and contrast explode into view, as does her wondrous blend with acoustic instrumentation (key in on the violins) and gospel-flecked nuance.

A songbird with a singular voice, Ronstadt time and again achieves “sweet harmony in unison” on Prisoner in Disguise, a record on which she’s at her peak.