Impex Records
As Cisco Music, we made the decision to release Jennifer Warnes' masterpiece Famous Blue Raincoat as a deluxe, 3-lp 45 RPM box set for many reasons. Mainly we were looking for a way to bring Ms. Warnes' original 1/2" mix-down tapes as close to fans and audiophiles as possible. While this worked out splendidly (Jennifer commented upon hearing the test pressings that it was the best she had ever heard it), the cost of the set was prohibitive for some and playing six sides (with bonus tracks) was cumbersome.
Now, as Impex Records, we have finally created the Famous Blue Raincoat for everyone. In keeping with the tone of the original 1986 release, we have remastered (again with Bernie Grundman using Jennifer's tapes) the original tracks onto a single LP. The back jacket will contain new art featuring archival photos. Once again(and to our great satisfaction) Jennifer Warnes personally oversaw all aspects of the production, giving you full confidence that this new 33 RPM Famous Blue Raincoat will be top-notch in every way. Anything less would be unacceptable for one of the world's greatest audiophile pop records. Especially from Impex Records.
TAS Super LP List! Special Merit: Informal
First Time 33rpm 180g Vinyl Release In Three Decades!
Mastered by Bernie Grundman & Pressed at RTI!
"Under the supervision of Warnes, Grundman has taken the original masters and breathed more warm analog life into each track than ever before. The dead-quiet surfaces of the superb 180-gram pressing permit more penetrating micro-dynamics and yield greater transparency and breadth between images." - Neil Gader, The Absolute Sound, Music 4.5/5, Sonics 4.5/5
In 1987 Jennifer Warnes and Roscoe Beck created an enduring interpretation of some of Leonard Cohen's greatest songs. The resulting album Famous Blue Raincoat has remained a touchstone of American pop. It's a recording as beautiful as the songs incisive, painstakingly created by some of the finest musicians and engineers ever assembled. It has rightfully remained immensely popular for aficionados of sound and song-craft.
Impex Records has enjoyed a long and rich collaboration wiht Jennifer Warnes. Now, they are proud to release, for the first time in over 30 years, a fully authorized and approved 33-rpm 180-gram vinyl LP of this groundbreaking classic.
On Famous Blue Raincoat: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, Jennifer Warnes rearranged and reinterpreted some of Leonard Cohen's greatest songs for a unique album that remains the ultimate tribute to Cohen's music.
Best known for such pop hits as the Oscar- and Grammy-winning duets "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" with Bill Medley, from the film Dirty Dancing, and "Up Where We Belong" with Joe Cocker, from the film An Officer and a Gentleman, Jennifer Warnes has earned her greatest acclaim for Famous Blue Raincoat, considered by many to be one of the best albums of the '80s.
Newly remastered by Bernie Grundman on his all-tube cutting system, using Jennifer Warnes' personal analog mix master and personally supervised by the artist herself, Famous Blue Raincoat is ready to be discovered by a new generation of vinyl enthusiasts seeking the purest musical alchemy, and vocal interpretation.
"Originally released on LP in 1986 by Cypress Records, Famous Blue Raincoat was a sensitive tribute album of Leonard Cohen songs. Rather than hew to Cohen's darker, weighty sensibilities, Jennifer Warnes reimagined the songs for her luminous voice and lifted the atmosphere with production gloss and light." - Neil Gader, The Absolute Sound, 4.5/5 Music, 4.5/5 Sonics.
"...the greatness of Cohen's songs endure and given the state of today's singingwhich is often just a lot of hysterical shouting (and now I sound like my parents!)Warnes' tastefully restrained yet intense performances here, become more rare, more precious, more beautiful and more valuable." - analogplanet, Music 8/11, Sound, 9/11
Features:
180g Vinyl
All-Tube Mastering
Mastered by Bernie Grundman
Mastered from Original Analog Master Tapes
Pressed at RTI
Heavy jacket with insert
