John Prine: Sweet Revenge (Rhino Reserve series, Start Your Ear Off Right 2026) [RHINO]

Why you'll love it

This Rhino Reserve edition is cut from the original analog masters by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab and pressed on 180g vinyl in California. Produced by Arif Mardin, it brought Prine back to a fuller rock 'n' roll sound and was critically acclaimed at the time.

This edition

• Rhino Reserve series
• 180g vinyl
• Cut from the original analog masters
• Pressed in California
• Stereo mix

About the album

John Prine was delivering mail in the Chicago suburbs not long before he became a songwriter's songwriter, and by his third album he had grown into a confident, full-voiced recording artist. Arif Mardin produced Sweet Revenge mostly at Quadraphonic Sound Studios in Nashville, with many of the musicians from his debut back on board.

Cissy Houston, Deidre Tuck and Judy Clay add gospel call-and-response to the title track, giving Prine's ragged edge a soulful lift. "Blue Umbrella" and "Onomatopoeia" were cut in New York, "Grandpa Was a Carpenter" honours his grandfather Empson Schobie Prine, and "Mexican Home" was partly inspired by his father sitting on the porch in Maywood, Illinois. "Christmas in Prison" mixes humour and longing in some of his most cinematic imagery.

"Dear Abby" is the live take from a show at the State University in New Paltz, which Prine preferred to the band version they tried in the studio; to him, the way a crowd turned its heads at the first verse was the power of the song. A man who used to carry the mail writing back to an advice column strikes us as the best possible use of the post.

Also at Kops: more John Prine on vinyl · browse Folk

Tracklist

Listen

On Atlantic / Rhino (cat# RES1 7274), a reissue of the 1973 album.