(2021) Bread - Baby I'm-A Want You Hybrid (Remastered,1972)


Review:
Baby I’m-A Want You is Bread’s best album, show- casing its soft and hard sides (yes, Bread had a hard side) at their respective peaks. “Mother Freedom,” with its crunchy James Griffin guitar solo, and the superb soft rocker “Baby I’m-A Want You” made a brilliant opening which the rest of the album had a hard time matching. The songs range from wistful sentimentality (“Diary”) to spirited protest (“This Isn’t What the Government,” a poor man’s “Taxman” with an anti-war slant). The high points outnumber the flat spots, and the playing is very polished (with unexpected hard rock flourishes on “Dream Lady”), but this is still a ’70s period piece. Mastered from the original master tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition hybrid SACD delivers engrossing levels of warmth, clarity, nuance, and smoothness that elevate Bread’s 1972 release to audiophile heights. For the first time, the quartet’s polished musicianship and vocal blends come across as if you’re hearing them happen live in the studio. Previously muddled elements are clarified, and the band’s choruses and treble-ringing notes opened up so they can fully blossom, pulling you closer to the combination of serious emotion and comic-infused romance. In particular, leader David Gates’ quasi-falsetto and other vocal touches get their just due. Baby I’m-A Want You spills over with vocal goodness on par with the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel. In his feature review for Rolling Stone, David Lubin observed: “Melodically and vocally Gates approaches the best of his love songs with a freshness that makes him, as did the early and middle [Paul] McCartney, sound like he’s never ever said before those words ‘he’s longed to say.’ Even when the ballads on the album are suffused with the passion of unrequited love, Bread never forces [its] feelings upon you. [The group] has developed an undefinable taste, or class, whatever you want to call it, which was totally absent in [the past].” The evidence arrives in the form of a quartet of songs that dominated the Billboard Top 100 charts – the title track (which climbed to #3), “Everything I Own,” “Diary,” and “Mother Freedom.” Throughout, melodramatic strains, complementary keyboard lines, and a fine equilibrium of poised grit and well-crafted instrumentation dot the music with sequin-like detail that glistens anew and rewards repeat listening. Bread’s mix of sentimental ballads and revved-up rock tracks (“Down on My Knees,” “Nobody Like You”) furthers the appeal of a record teeming with sweet and sour flavors. It’s also worth mentioning Baby I’m-A Want You marks the first appearance of Grammy-winning pianist/organist Jimmy Knechtel on a Bread album. Together with Gates, guitarist and Academy Award-winner Jimmy Griffin, and in-the-pocket drummer Mike Botts, Knechtel gives the quartet the butter its songs need – and the ingredients missing from some of its earlier work. Puns aside, the delicious back beats, buzzing guitars, complementary keyboard runs, and steadying bass evident on every track serve to confirm all 12 songs are bread winners – literally and figuratively. — mofi.com





Track Listing:
1.Mother Freedom 2:55
2.Baby I'm-A Want You 2:25
3.Down On My Knees 2:44
4.Everything I Own 3:06
5.Nobody Like You 3:11
6.Diary 3:05
7.Dream Lady 3:23
8.Daughter 3:21
9.Games Of Magic 3:09
10.This Isn't What The Governmeant 2:25
11.Just Like Yesterday 2:35
12.I Don't Love You  2:50


Media Report:
Genre: soft rock
Country: USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits