Release Date: 7/17/2026

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.