Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Blood, Sweat and Tears Available Now
At the end of a long day of listening at loud levels to multiple copies of this album you may want to run yourself a hot bath and light some candles. If you have an isolation tank at your disposal, so much the better.
You could of course turn down the volume, but what fun is that?
This music wasn’t meant to be heard at moderate levels. Playing it that way is an insult to the musicians who worked so hard to make their music sound big and lively.
The Right Balance
Every once in a while you hear a pressing in which the right balance has been struck, and we played one years ago that clearly belonged to that group. It’s not perfect; you have to put up with a few rough patches to get the sound that serves most of the music properly. No copy will do it all; with this album the goal is to do the best you can.
When it’s working it’s fantastic. The big Al Kooper productions (I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know, My Days are Numbered, I Can’t Quit Her, Somethin’ Goin’ On) really work when they have the energy and dynamic drive to carry the emotion of the lyric.
What to Listen For
This record needs fullness; the copies that were thin, like most of the reissues, were unlistenably shrill and spitty.
Next you want the life of the music to come through, which means presence and dynamics.