MoFi SACD Hall and Oates – Rock ‘n Soul Part 1

Sourced from the original master tapes and mastered by engineer Rob LoVerde (assisted by Shawn R. Britton), Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition hybrid SACD reissue presents nine Top 10 Hall and Oates singles with awe-inspiring detail and palpable realism. Lifelike tones grace the array of guitars, pianos, basses, and voices placed against synthesized backdrops. Each member’s singing claims enhanced intimacy and balance. The collective harmonies sound sharp, the dynamics rich, and the soundstages wide and deep. While the tandem’s peers often relied on robotic mechanisms and now-dated keyboard devices, Hall and Oates wisely merge the period’s savvy styles with tried-and-true soulful instrumentation.

All the trademarks – swinging verse structures, call-and-response choruses, stick-in-your-head bridges, sleek keyboard layers, doo-wop fills, and, in some places, reggae-nodding accents or cool saxophone lines to stir up the mood and atmosphere – that make the duo’s music irresistible pulse throughout Rock ‘n Soul Part 1. Eight of the singles included here cracked the Top 5. They remain prototype intersections of blue-eyed soul, edge new wave, and dance, blueprints for pop mastery that catapulted Hall and Oates to becoming the most successful duo in rock history.