On the surface, Bob Dylan’s Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid serves as a potent soundtrack to Sam Peckinpah’s western of the same name. Yet the Grammy-nominated set is much more, remaining distinctive and intriguing because of the cast Dylan assembled for its creation—and their collective performances. The 10-track album effortlessly breathes with country, folk, blues, and old-time pop flavors. A-list collaborators, including drummer Jim Keltner, fiddler Byron Berline, and Byrds legend Roger McGuinn, assist Dylan in making instrumental portraits teem with detail, character, and a definite sense of place. Then there’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” Transcending the status of song, the Bard’s poignant tune has gone on to become nothing short of an anthem—a symbolic hymn whose expressiveness encompasses resilience, sorrow, forgiveness, readiness, and more. Heard anew on exquisite analogue and digital editions, everything here takes on deeper meaning and conveys elevated levels of enjoyment.

Mastered from the original master tapes, and strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies on 180g vinyl LP and 2,500 copies on hybrid SACD, Mobile Fidelity’s reissues feature reference-level instrumental separation and full-bodied tones that allow the songs to blossom amidst soundstages whose dimensions are limited only by the breadth of your stereo system. The flinty, raw acoustic edge of Dylan and Bruce Langhorne’s guitars come into immediate relief. Booker T. Jones’ relaxed albeit taut bass, Jolly Roger’s down home banjo, Russ Kunkel’s textured bongos, and the crucial string accompaniments flourish. In every regard, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid has never sounded better.