Record Reviews
📝 2096 reviews| Artist | Title | Review |
|---|---|---|
| Eric Clapton | E.C. Was Here | </p>Since Eric Clapton and his longtime fans have always thought of him primarily as a bluesman, it is curious that this live album, which is devoted to extended guitar solos on blues standards like "Have You Ever Loved a Woman," "Rambling On My Mind," and "Further On Up the Road," didn't become a massive hit. Maybe it was that the once reclusive Clapton was now spitting out new albums every six months, but E.C. Was Here did not achieve the renown it deserved upon release, and Clapton, who had been reluctant to put out a straight blues album to begin with, didn't try anything similar again for almost 20 years, instead making sure to keep his records within a pop framework that usually diluted their effectiveness. In its CD reissue, with "Drifting Blues" extended out to its full 11 1 / 2 minutes, the album is even more impressive. </p><br><br>- - William Ruhlmann<br> |
| Eric Clapton | No Reason To Cry | <p>When he gave a speech inducting the Band into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Eric Clapton said that after he heard their debut album, Music from Big Pink, he wanted to join the group, the fact that they already had a guitarist in Robbie Robertson notwithstanding. In the winter of 1975-1976, when he cut No Reason to Cry at the Band's Shangri-La Studio in Malibu, California, he came as close as he ever would to realizing that desire. Clapton is a musical chameleon; though some of No Reason to Cry is identifiable as the kind of pop/rock Clapton had been making since the start of his solo career (the best of it being "Hello Old Friend," which became his first Top 40 single in two years), the most memorable music on the album occurs when Clapton is collaborating with members of the Band and other guests. He duets with Band bassist Rick Danko on Danko's "All Our Past Times," and with Bob Dylan on Dylan's "Sign Language," as Robertson's distinctive lead guitar is heard rather than Clapton's. As a result, the album is a good purchase for fans of Bob Dylan and the Band, but not necessarily for those of Eric Clapton.</p><p>— <strong>William Ruhlmann</strong></p> |
| Eric Clapton | Slowhand | <p>After the all-star No Reason to Cry failed to make much of an impact commerically, Eric Clapton returned to using his own band for Slowhand. The difference is substantial — where No Reason to Cry struggled hard to find the right tone, Slowhand opens with the relaxed, bluesy shuffle of J.J. Cale's "Cocaine" and sustains it throughout the course of the album.</p><p>Alternating between straight blues ("Mean Old Frisco"), country ("Lay Down Sally"), mainstream rock ("Cocaine," "The Core") and pop ("Wonderful Tonight"), Slowhand doesn't sound schizophrenic because of the band's grasp of the material. This is laidback virtuosity — although Clapton and his band are never flashy, their playing is masterful and assured. That assurance and the album's eclectic material makes Slowhand rank with 461 Ocean Boulevard as Eric Clapton's best album.</p><p>— <strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p> |
| Eric Clapton | Stages | <p>Spectrum's 1993 Stages is a curious compilation that offers a little bit of every phrase of the prime of Eric Clapton's career, containing a few cuts from his stint with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, a couple tracks from both Cream and Derek & the Dominos, a cut from Blind Faith, and a solo cut from the '70s. The caveat is, with the exception of Cream's "Crossroads" and maybe "Steppin' Out" and "Hide Away," which are the signature Mayall tunes, none of these are hits — they're just taken almost at random. Most of it is pretty good, but it's not assembled with the intention of revealing his lesser-known tunes, nor is it a good choice for casual fans who want to dig deeper. It's just a hodgepodge, but as hodgepodges go, it's not bad.</p><p>— <strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p> |
| Eric Clapton | Backless | <p>Having made his best album since 461 Ocean Boulevard with Slowhand, Eric Clapton followed with Backless, which took the same authoritative, no-nonsense approach. If it wasn't quite the masterpiece, or the sales monster, that Slowhand had been, this probably was because of that usual Clapton problem — material. Once again, he returned to those Oklahoma hills for another song from J.J. Cale, but "I'll Make Love to You Anytime" wasn't quite up to "Cocaine" or "After Midnight."</p><p> Bob Dylan contributed two songs, but you could see why he hadn't saved them for his own album, and Clapton's own writing contributions were mediocre. Clapton did earn a Top Ten hit with Richard Feldman and Roger Linn's understated pop shuffle "Promises," but it was not one of his more memorable recordings. Of course, Clapton's blues playing on the lone obligatory blues cut, "Early in the Morning" (presented in its full eight - minute version on the CD reissue), was stellar. (Backless was his last album to feature the backup group that had been with him since 1974.)</p> <p>— <strong>William Ruhlmann</strong></p> |
| Eric Clapton | Just One Night | <p>Although Eric Clapton has released a bevy of live albums, none of them have ever quite captured the guitarist's raw energy and dazzling virtuosity. The double live album Just One Night may have gotten closer to that elusive goal than most of its predecessors, but it is still lacking in many ways. The most notable difference between Just One Night and Clapton's other live albums is his backing band. Led by guitarist Albert Lee, the group is a collective of accomplished professionals who have managed to keep some grit in their playing. They help push Clapton along, forcing him to spit out crackling solos throughout the album. However, the performances aren't consistent on Just One Night — there are plenty of dynamic moments like "Double Trouble" and "Rambling on My Mind," but they are weighed down by pedestrian renditions of songs like "All Our Past Times." Nevertheless, more than any other Clapton live album, Just One Night suggests the guitarist's in-concert potential. It's just too bad that the recording didn't occur on a night when he did fulfill all of that potential.</p><p>— <strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p> |
| Eric Clapton | Crossroads 2 | <p>Crossroads was a box set that appealed to both beginners and fanatics. Crossroads 2 (Live in the Seventies) only appeals to fanatics. Spanning four discs and consisting almost entirely of live material (there are a handful of studio outtakes), this is music that will only enthrall completists and archivists. For those listeners, there is a wealth of fascinating, compelling performances here, as well as a fair share of mediocre, uninspired tracks.</p><p>The key word for the entire album is detail - - it is an album for studying the intricacies of Clapton's playing and how it evolved. For example, it's easy to hear the differences and progressions between the four versions of Robert Johnson's "Rambling On My Mind." And it is Clapton that evolves, not his supporting band - - although they are proficient, they are hardly exciting. However, they're static, professional support provides a nice bed to chart Slowhand's growth over the course of the decade, simply because he is always the focal point. Crossroads 2 may only be for a collector, but for those collectors, it is a treasure, even if some of the tracks are fool's gold.</p><br><br>- - Stephen Thomas Erlewine<br> |
| Eric Clapton | Another Ticket | <p>Now, here's a star-crossed album. Polydor rejected the first version of it, produced by Glyn Johns, and Eric Clapton was forced to cut it all over again with Tom Dowd. Then, a few dates into a US promotional tour coinciding with its release, Clapton collapsed and was found to be near death from ulcers due to his alcoholism. Finally, it turned out to be the final record of his 15 - year association with Polydor, which therefore had no reason to promote it. Nevertheless, the album made the Top 10, went gold, and spawned a Top 10 single in "I Can't Stand It." And the rest of it wasn't too shabby, either.</p><p>The first and last Clapton studio album to feature his all - British band of the early '80s, it gave considerable prominence to second guitarist Albert Lee and especially to keyboard player / singer Gary Brooker (formerly leader of Procol Harum), and they gave it more of a blues - rock feel than the country - funk brewed up by the Tulsa shuffle crew Clapton had used throughout the 1970s. Best of all, Clapton had taken the time to write some songs — he's credited on six of the nine selections — and tunes such as the title track and "I Can't Stand It" held up well. This wasn't great Clapton, but it was good, and it deserved more recognition that conditions allowed it at the time.</p><p>— <strong>William Ruhlmann</strong></p> |
| Eric Clapton | Money And Cigarettes | <p>Recorded with some old friends including Ry Cooder, Duck Dunn, and Albert Lee Money and Cigarettes is one of Clapton's finest albums. Instead of being an empty exercise in studio professionalism, the record is an appealing, lowkey effort featuring some of the smoothest blues Clapton has ever played.</p><p>— <strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p> |
| Eric Clapton | Money And Cigarettes | <p>Money and Cigarettes marked several important turning points in Eric Clapton's recording career. It was his debut release on his own Duck imprint within Warner Bros.' Reprise Records subsidiary. It was also the first album he made after coming to terms with his drinking problem by giving up alcohol. Newly focused and having written a batch of new songs, he became dissatisfied with his longtime band and fired them, with the exception of second guitarist Albert Lee. In their place, he hired session pros like Stax Records veteran bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn and Muscle Shoals drummer Roger Hawkins, also bringing in guest guitarist Ry Cooder. His new songs reflected on his changed condition, with "Ain't Going Down," a thinly veiled musical rewrite of the Jimi Hendrix arrangement of "All Along the Watchtower," serving as a statement of purpose that declared, "I've still got something left to say." "The Shape You're In" was a criticism of his wife for her alcoholism that concluded, "I'm just telling you baby 'cause I've been there myself," while the lengthy acoustic ballad "Pretty Girl" and "Man in Love" reaffirmed his feelings for her. The album's single was the relatively slight pop tune "I've Got a Rock n' Roll Heart," but Clapton's many blues fans must have been most pleased with the covers of Sleepy John Estes' "Everybody Oughta Make a Change" (significantly placed as the album's leadoff track), Albert King's "Crosscut Saw," and Johnny Otis' "Crazy Country Hop." For all the changes and the high-powered sidemen, though, Money and Cigarettes ended up being just an average effort from Clapton, which his audience seems to have sensed since, despite the Top 20 placement for the single, it became his first album in more than six years to miss the Top Ten and fail to go gold.</p><p>— <strong>William Ruhlmann</strong></p> |
| Eric Clapton | Crossroads | <p>A four - disc box set spanning Eric Clapton's entire career - - running from the Yardbirds to his '80s solo recordings - - Crossroads not only revitalized Clapton's commerical standing, but it established the rock & roll multi - disc box set retrospective as a commercially viable proposition. Bob Dylan's Biograph was successful two years before the release of Crossroads, but Clapton's set was a bonafide blockbuster. And it's easy to see why. </p><p>Crossroads manages to sum up Clapton's career succinctly and thoroughly, touching upon all of his hits and adding a bevy of first - rate unreleased material (most notably selections from the scrapped second Derek & the Dominos album). Although not all of his greatest performances are included on the set - - none of this work as a session musician or guest artist is included, for instance - - every truly essential item he recorded is present on these four discs. No other Clapton album accurately explains why the guitarist was so influential, or demonstrates exactly what he accomplished.</p><br><br>- - Stephen Thomas Erlewine<br> |
| Eric Clapton | Blues | <p>Eric Clapton earned a reputation as a blues guitarist early in his career, and while he frequently returned to the blues — usually recording at least one blues tune per album — he never recorded a full-fledged blues album until 1994's From the Cradle. It became one of the most popular records of his career. Not long afterward, MCA assembled a collection of Jimi Hendrix's blues recordings, and that compilation also proved quite successful. Those two releases provided the blueprint for Blues, Polygram's double-disc collection of blues highlights from Clapton's RSO recordings of the '70s. On each of those albums, Clapton dabbled in the blues, and all of those moments, along with five previously unreleased tracks (both live and studio cuts), are featured here. Given that it's a compilation spanning ten years, it's not entirely surprising that Blues lacks cohesion, but the quality of the songs and performances is better than the majority of his RSO albums. As a matter of fact, nearly every performance on this set offers proof that Clapton could still dazzle as a guitarist during the '70s, even if his life was plagued with personal problems that ultimately affected his recording career. Blues may not appeal to listeners who just want hits, but even serious fans who have most of the tunes here may find this a revelatory listening experience.</p><p>— <strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p> |
| Eric Clapton | Homeboy | <p>Eric Clapton's score to the Mickey Rourke film Homeboy consists largely of bluesy instrumental pieces performed by Clapton, keyboard player Michael Kamen, bassist Nathan East, and drummer Steve Ferrone. Clapton's solo electric guitar version of "Dixie" owes much to Jimi Hendrix's version of "The Star-Spangled Banner." There are also a few blues numbers by Magic Sam and J.B. Hutto. The playing is accomplished, of course, but like most soundtracks this one seems to be missing something without the film images.</p><p>— <strong>William Ruhlmann</strong></p> |
| Eric Clapton | Journeyman | <p>For most of the '80s, Eric Clapton seemed rather lost, uncertain of whether he should return to his blues roots or pander to AOR radio. By the mid - '80s, he appeared to have made the decision to revamp himself as a glossy mainstream rocker, working with synthesizers and drum machines. Instead of expanding his audience, it only reduced it. Then came the career retrospective Crossroads, which helped revitalize his career, not only commercially, but also creatively, as Journeyman — the first album he recorded after the success of Crossroads — proved.</p><p>Although Journeyman still suffers from an overly slick production, Clapton sounds more convincing than he has since the early '70s. Not only is his guitar playing muscular and forceful, his singing is soulful and gritty. Furthermore, the songwriting is consistently strong, alternating between fine mainstream rock originals ("Pretending") and covers ("Before You Accuse Me," "Hound Dog"). Like any of Clapton's best albums, there is no grandstanding to be found on Journeyman — it's simply a laidback and thoroughly engaging display of Clapton's virtuosity. On the whole, it's the best studio album he's released since Slowhand.</p><p>— <strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p> |
| Eric Clapton | Unauthorised Live Vol 1 | |
| Eric Clapton | Unauthorised Live Vol 2 | |
| Eric Clapton | Unauthorised Live Vol 3 | |
| Eric Clapton | Unauthorised Live Vol 4 | |
| Eric Clapton | Just 24 Nights | <p>Eric Clapton, who had not released a live album since 1980, had several good reasons to release one in the early '90s. For one thing, his spare backup band of keyboardist Greg Phillinganes, bassist Nathan East, and drummer Steve Ferrone was his best live unit ever, and its powerful live versions of Cream classics like "White Room" and "Sunshine of Your Love" deserved to be documented. For another, since 1987 Clapton had been playing an annual series of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London, putting together various special shows (blues nights, orchestral nights, etc.). 24 Nights, a double album, was culled from two years of such shows, 1990 and 1991, and it demonstrated the breadth of Clapton's work, from his hot regular band to assemblages of bluesmen like Buddy Guy and Robert Cray to examples of his soundtrack work with an orchestra led by Michael Kamen. The result was an album that came across as a lavishly constructed retrospective and a testament to Clapton's musical stature. But it made little impact upon release (though it quickly went gold), perhaps because events overcame it — three months later, Clapton's elegy for his baby son, "Tears in Heaven," was all over the radio, and a few months after that he was redefining himself on MTV Unplugged — a live show as austere as 24 Nights was grand. Still, it would be hard to find a more thorough demonstration of Clapton's abilities than the one presented here.</p><p>— <strong>William Ruhlmann</strong></p> |
| Eric Clapton | 24 Nights | <p>In the early '90s, master guitarist Eric Clapton staged 24 concerts at London's historic Royal Albert Hall. This DVD captures 13 songs performed over the course of those memorable shows. The disc offers a standard full-frame 1.33:1 transfer. A closed-captioned English soundtrack is rendered in PCM Stereo. There are no subtitles available on this release. Although there are no special features, Clapton fans might argue that these performances, which cover every aspect of his long career, are special reason enough to own this disc.</p><p>— <b>Perry Seibert</b></p> |
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