The Doobie Brothers Expand Their Palette on the

Soulful What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits:

Double-Platinum Album Features the No. 1 Hit "Black

Water" and the Memphis Horns

Hear the Feel-Good 1974 Record in ReferenceGrade Sound: Mobile Fidelity's Numbered-Edition

180g 45RPM 2LP Set Plays with Striking Clarity and

Presence

"And I ain't got no worries/'Cause I ain't in no hurry at all." The

capstone to the chorus of the Doobie Brothers' No. 1 hit "Black

Water" sums up the feel-good emotions and Southern-styled charm

of What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits. As the group's most

diverse and ambitious effort upon it's release in 1974, the album

finds the sextet expanding it's stylistic parameters while holding firm

on it's signature blend of rock, country, and R&B. More than five

decades later, it stands along with the band's other early and mid70s records as an indispensable staple of a Hall of Fame career.

And now, it plays with reference sonics. Sourced from the original

analog master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, and

housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity's 180g

45RPM 2LP of What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits affords the

work the room of a 45RPM version for the first time. Because of the

wider grooves, the music benefits from extraordinary soundstages,

ultra-quiet backgrounds, big dynamics, and spot-on imaging.

From the decision to run acoustic guitars through Leslie speakers

on "Another Park, Another Sunday" to the naturalism of the

shaded vocal harmonies, Ted Templeman's production shines. To

paraphrase the band on "Tell Me What You Want (And I'll Give You

What You Need)": Easy, cool, and breezy. What a feeling, indeed.