Blood Sweat & Tears: Blood Sweat & Tears

Over its lengthy ongoing career and countless personnel shuffles, Blood, Sweat & Tears achieved its peak of fame in 1968 with the release of this eponymously titled LP. A huge commercial and artistic success, Blood Sweat & Tears has just been reissued as part of Mobile Fidelity’s outstanding One-Step series, which removes two steps in the plating process to bring us that much closer to the master tape. The songs range from “Variations on a Theme by Erik Satie,” which opens and closes the LP, to Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child,” Traffic’s “Smiling Phases,” and three hit singles that define the album: Lead-singer David Clayton-Thomas’ “Spinning Wheel,” Laura Nyro’s “And When I Die,” and “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy.” MoFi’s One-Step breathes a newfound immediacy and physical presence to these tunes, as well as impressive dynamic punch, detail, and instrumental texture. The electric bass digs deep; there’s a realistic snap to the drums. Flutes, horns, and cymbals are presented with plenty of studio air and atmosphere, all on a large soundstage arrayed across the room. Like much music from the time, BS&T sounds like an aural snapshot of the day. And I mean that in a good way.