Blood, Sweat and Tears’ Second Album Is a Top Test Disc
UPDATE 2026
The commentary you see below was written around 2010.
In it we describe a mind-blowing pair of copies that were each awarded a grade of Four Pluses. There was one Four Plus side one on one copy, and a different copy had a Four Plus side two.
We no longer give Four Pluses out as a matter of policy, but that doesn’t mean we don’t come across records that deserve them from time to time.
This was one of those records, a true outlier. Out of fifty records, this was one of the two copies that took the sound (and music!) of one of the sides to places we had never heard it go before. We call these kinds of records breakthrough pressings. When you get paid to critically audition records for decades, all day, every day, you are bound to run into some from time to time. These are their stories.
Our Commentary from 2010 (Minor changes have been made.)
Our last big shootout was back in early 2008.
What we learned this time around for this album can be summed up in a few short words: it’s all about the brass.