Heartbreakers’ . EXPLAINER: ’Born To Lose’ ~ the Found Masters new clear audio!

FOUND IN AN ATTIC - a copy master of the original tape, without ’mud’! This classic punk album, made in London by New York Dolls Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan’s new band the Heartbreakers, was always controversial - and not just for the acronym. Upon release on Track Records in 1977, it was universally condemned in the music press for having a ’muddy mix’ - later found to be a mastering fault. When Track went bust the following year, manager Leee Black Childers managed to burgle the Track Records’ Carnaby Street office and liberated the tapes that belonged to him and the band - but he found everything except the master-tape. Subsequent releases were remixed from the multi-tracks (’Revisted’, 1984) or compiled from outtake mixes - the ’lost ’77 mixes’ (1994) being the version most known since. A tweaked needle lift from vinyl for a ’definitive’ box set removed a lot of the ’mud’ but still didn’t achieve full clarity. Meanwhile, f