Bruce Hornsby And The Range Scenes From The Southside Rar 2021 < RELIABLE – Fix >
The primary talking point for the 2021 release is the audio quality. Remastered for the modern era, the new mix clears the sonic fog often associated with mid-80s production.
In the original mix, the brilliance of the Range—specifically the interplay between Hornsby’s piano and George Marinelli’s guitar—could sometimes get lost in the era’s love for synthesized gloss. The 2021 remaster brings the rhythm section to the fore. You can hear the distinct "clack" of the piano hammers and the nuanced picking of the acoustic guitars with startling clarity.
Tracks like "The Valley Road" benefit immensely from this treatment. The song’s rolling piano riff, reminiscent of a train ride through the Blue Ridge Mountains, feels more dynamic, reinforcing why this track became the band's second #1 hit on the Mainstream Rock charts.
First, let’s clarify the search term. "RAR" is not an official MoFi acronym but is frequently used by collectors on forums like Discogs and Steve Hoffman Music Forums to denote a "Reissue Album Recording" or simply as a shorthand for the 2021 limited-run series. In 2021, Mobile Fidelity, known for their "Ultradisc One-Step" process, also released a more accessible line of standard 180-gram vinyl reissues. Scenes from the Southside landed in this batch.
Thus, when a collector searches for "Bruce Hornsby and the Range Scenes from the Southside RAR 2021," they are looking for the specific 2021 Mobile Fidelity pressing—not the original 1988 RCA Victor pressing, nor the generic 2010s reissue. The primary talking point for the 2021 release
Looking back at the album through the lens of 2021, critics and fans alike have elevated Scenes from the Southside from a "successful follow-up" to arguably the band's most consistent studio work. It lacks the massive, generation-defining single of the debut, but it flows better as an album.
The 2021 release discussions also touched on the band's influence. One cannot listen to modern artists like The War on Drugs or Kings of Leon without hearing the ghost of this specific era of Hornsby’s sound—the marrying of jam-band improvisation with tight, pop-song structures.
1. "The Valley Road"
Without the radio compression of the 80s, the opening banjo (played by Hornsby himself on a synthesizer? No—on this pressing, you realize it’s actually a sampled acoustic, but the remaster clears up the high-end hiss). The RAR version allows George Marinelli’s guitar to breathe behind the narrative of Southern class-divide romance.
2. "The Show Goes On"
A deep cut about the death of Hornsby’s brother. In the 2021 transfer, the piano’s lower register is devastating. You feel the sustain pedal ringing out into silence. This is the emotional heart of the RAR edition; the warmth of the vinyl cut makes the grief palpable rather than clinical. It has not exploded in value like a One-Step (e
3. "Look Out Any Window"
This track benefits most from the high-frequency roll-off of the analogue cut. The cymbal work doesn't sizzle harshly; it shimmers. Hornsby’s commentary on Reagan-era homelessness sounds hauntingly prescient in a post-2020 world, and the clarity of the backing vocals (The Range: George Marinelli, Joe Puerta, John Molo) allows the gospel influence to surface.
In the pantheon of 1980s pop-rock, few debut albums were as inescapable as Bruce Hornsby and the Range’s The Way It Is. Powered by its title track—a bona fide anthem that fused MTV pop with socially conscious lyrics—the band faced the classic "sophomore slump" hurdle. In 1988, they answered with Scenes from the Southside.
While the 1988 release is a staple of late-80s radio, the 2021 reissue (part of a wider campaign by Audiophile remastering teams) invites listeners to strip away the radio static and rediscover the album as a cohesive, richly textured masterpiece of American songwriting.
In the pantheon of late-1980s album-oriented rock, few debuts were as quietly revolutionary as Bruce Hornsby and the Range’s The Way It Is (1986). Yet, it is often the less-heralded follow-up, Scenes from the Southside (1988), that represents the band’s most cohesive artistic statement. For decades, audiophiles have clamored for a definitive pressing of this overlooked gem. That wish was finally granted in 2021, when Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MoFi) released a very specific, high-end version known colloquially as the "Bruce Hornsby and the Range Scenes from the Southside RAR 2021" —referring to MoFi’s Original Master Recording (often abbreviated as RAR for "Record Album Replica" or used generically for their standard audiophile series). The Nightfly )
Here is everything you need to know about this sought-after 2021 reissue, from its sonic architecture to its market value.
Was the Bruce Hornsby and the Range Scenes from the Southside RAR 2021 a limited run? While MoFi did not publish numbers, standard pressings typically run 5,000 to 10,000 copies.
It has not exploded in value like a One-Step (e.g., The Nightfly), but it holds steady because Scenes is the most underrated record in Hornsby’s catalog. Given that Hornsby has since moved to his own independent label (Zappo Productions), this MoFi license may never be renewed, making the 2021 RAR the last "analog-centric" pressing you will likely see.
The 2021 reissue of Scenes from the Southside is not just a nostalgia trip; it is a restoration project. It restores the album to its intended place in the lineage of American rock: as a sophisticated, musically literate collection of songs that transcended the 80s production gloss. For those who only know Bruce Hornsby for "The Way It Is," this reissue makes a compelling argument that his most satisfying work might actually be the scenes he painted on the Southside.
