Warren Zevon - Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School Warren Zevon

The regal strings and successive gunshots that announce the start of Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School encapsulate the contrasts Warren Zevon deftly navigates on an album that further telescoped his witty, neo-noir songwriting to a broad audience. Recorded as the Chicago native struggled to overcome toxic addictions and advance from a soured marriage, the 1980 record showcases his interest in classical arrangements and knack for incisive observation, tongue-in-cheek fun and heartbreaking emotion.

Sourced from the original analogue master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition 180g 45RPM 2LP set presents Zevon’s fourth album in audiophile sound. Co-produced by Zevon and longtime studio partner Greg Ladanyi, Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School benefits from key collaborations with ace musicians such as Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Ben Keith, Waddy Wachtel, J.D. Souther, and Eagles members Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Don Felder. Their contributions, as well as the steadiness and punch of Zevon’s small combo, can be heard with unhindered detail, presence and pacing.

You will experience wide instrumental separation; dynamic elements that underscore the depth of the rhythms; transparency that traces a through-line to the original sessions at The Sound Factory; warmth on a par with prized analog recordings; naturalism that elevates the body and tenor of Zevon’s vocals; and revealing levels of openness, balance and imaging. Everything from the .44 Magnum that Zevon fired into a barrel of sand to capture percussive effects at the beginning of the title track to the variety of slide, pedal, lap-steel and electric guitars used throughout comes through with engaging clarity.

Dedicated to crime-fiction author Ken Millar, who helped steer Zevon through his drying-out period, and distinguished by a back cover that famously features a disparate image, a pair of ballet shoes resting alongside a machine gun and spent bullets, Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School often reveals the singer-songwriter at his most personal. He pairs such unguardedness with two concise string interludes that evoke chamber-music aspirations and reflect his admiration for composer Igor Stravinsky, whom he once visited in Russia.