BRAND NEW DAY

While their connection with progressive rock community (in any general terms) will always be debatable, BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS were surely an interesting band. Even before the term "jazz-rock" was introduced, they played an interesting amalgam of rock, blues, jazz and soul, spiced with the late 1960s psychedelia. Due to prominent role of the brass section in their sound, someone coined the name of the style - "brass-rock". Alas, that was in the late 1960s, while in 1977 the band was far away from their inspiring roots.

"Brand New Day" is actually a decent soul/funk effort that fans of Stevie Wonder or Joe Cocker would probably like a lot. Not everything functions here in the best possible way and songs like "Dreaming as One" (with Chaka Khan), "Blue Street" and "Rock'n'Roll Queen" are extremely softy pop/soul ballads that a convinced "prog rocker" usually skips without remorse. On the other hand, there are several quite good moments, like two funkiest pieces "Somebody I Trusted" and "Gimme That Wine" that recall James Brown or Sly Stone. Clayton-Thomas' "black" vocal is brilliant in these moments as well as in "Don't Explain", although the latter suffers from unavoidable comparation with the angelic voice of Billie Holiday's original interpretation. J.J. Cale is famed for being credited for providing original songs only to see other people megaselling their cover versions. Bob Marley and Eric Clapton are the most famous examples. But, BS&T did not manage to follow suit although their rendition of "Same Old Blues" is fairly good interpretation of infectious Cale's laid-back, lazy country-blues rhytms.

In this phase the band was playing almost only the covers and lack of their original tracks just proves that they were long time now a past sensation. "Brand New Day" is not in the scope of even the average albums of the progressive rock era, but if you like brass instruments, soul and funk, occasional spin won't hurt.

PERSONAL RATING: 3/5 PA RATING: 2/5