Blood, Sweat & Tears had a hard act to follow in recording their third album. Nevertheless,
BS&T constructed a convincing, if not quite as impressive, companion to their previous hit.
David Clayton-Thomas remained an enthusiastic blues shouter, and the band still managed to put together lively arrangements, especially on the Top 40 hits "Hi-De-Ho" and "Lucretia Mac Evil." Elsewhere, they re-created the previous album's jazzing up of
Laura Nyro ("He's a Runner") and
Traffic ("40,000 Headmen"), although their pretentiousness, on the extended "Symphony/Sympathy for the Devil," and their tendency to borrow other artists' better-known material (
James Taylor's "Fire and Rain") rather than generating more of their own, were warning signs for the future. In the meantime,
BS&T 3 was another chart-topping gold hit. ~ William Ruhlmann