"Given the choice between
accomplishing something
and just lying around, I'd
rather lie around. No contest."
Eric Clapton
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One More Car: One More Rider 
Eric Clapton's first live album since 1992's zeitgeist-capturing Unplugged, is, as one would expect,
full of well tailored highlights from his back-catalog of bristly, well-kept blues. Recorded in
Los Angeles and Tokyo during his 2001 world tour (the accompanying DVD is taken exclusively from
the Los Angeles show), and featuring backing from the likes of Andy Fairweather-Low and Billy Preston,
it's an album that serves to satisfy both Clapton purists (there's a four-song sequence of tracks
from Pilgrim, shorn of their original anodyne synthesizer embellishments) and adult pop fans who
prefer their blues from the decanter rather than the bottle ("Tears in Heaven," a sublime "Bell Bottom Blues,"
a rather poised, applause-riddled "Layla").
One More Car is an engaging live document that finds EC far from asleep at the wheel.
(Kevin Maidment)
Reptile
A reptile, according to Eric Clapton, is something of a bloke,
as in some local character you might share a pint with down at the pub.
So this 14-song collection is aptly named: If it were a barfly,
it wouldn't turn heads when it entered the bar, but it wouldn't empty
the place, either.
Working with essentially the same team that put together '00's
Riding with the King (sans, of course, B.B. King), Reptile feels like
a summary of the many guises Clapton has adopted in his illustrious past.
Blues has always been the backbone of EC's music and here he tackles
Walter Davis's "Come Back Baby" with surefootedness.
Clapton has mined J.J. Cale's fine-and-mellow repertoire in the past,
coming up with the hits "Cocaine" and "After Midnight"; here he revives
Cale's "Travelin' Light" with unfussy aplomb. He kicks things off with
an instrumental samba, ventures back into lite rock, and mixes originals
and covers, the latter bunch including Stevie Wonder's
"I Ain't Gonna Stand for It" and James Taylor's "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight."
In the end, it's apparent this reptile is something of a chameleon.
(Steven Stolder)
Riding With The King
It sounds like the beginning of a story:
"So, Slowhand and the King of the Blues were riding in a car ..."
If this is a musical journey, it's the kind that rolls down long, empty
stretches of country highway at 80 miles an hour, with the top down and
the stereo blasting. Clapton and King may be more city than country,
but this collection has the relaxed, laid-back feel that only comes
from a pair of veterans doing what they do best.
What they do here is cover 12 classic blues songs, many of them staples
of King's repertoire, so the title of this album makes sense.
Whether it's the rollicking rock & roll of the title track, or the acoustic
shuffle of "Key to the Highway," or the sweet notes of
"When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer," a real sense of pleasure comes through
on this album, the kind of pleasure one gets from jamming late at night
with a good friend.
(Genevieve Williams)
The Clapton Chronicles
If this were your first exposure to Eric Clapton, a bit of bewilderment would be in order. This is the
legendary guitar icon? This is (as his early apostles once proclaimed) God? Ranging from the
mid-'80s through the late '90s, The Clapton Chronicles owes less to the groundbreaking
blues-rock of Clapton's '60s and '70s classics than to the polished-to-a-glare pop of Phil Collins,
who produced one of the tracks included in this 14-song anthology.
His reinterpretation of his greatest recording--the once-gripping, now-placid "Layla"--perhaps best illustrates Clapton at
middle-age: Who wants to bask in his darkest period? Not Clapton, who converts his surging,
purging charge into a soothing stroll. And perhaps not fans of such docile MOR fare as "My
Father's Eyes," "Tears in Heaven," and the two new tracks, "Blue Eyes Blue" and "Get Lost."
(Steven Stolder)
Blues
While Eric Clapton has been through many incarnations, from guitar god to straight-ahead
rocker to pop superstar, he has remained first and foremost -- in his heart at least -- a
bluesman. Blues is a two-disc, 25-track compilation celebrating Clapton's love for the
genre he cut his musical teeth on.
The collection assembles, for the first time, his recorded blues output. Disc one is
comprised of 15 studio tracks, while disc two features 10 live cuts (there are, in total, four
previously unavailable selections).
Disc one is steeped deeply in a slow, grinding blues style. "Mean Old World," "The Sky is
Crying" and "Early in the Morning," among others, find "Slowhand" living up to his name. A
highlight of the studio material is the bittersweet, almost gospel-tinged "To Make
Somebody Happy."
Clapton maintains the authenticity of the originals by piling layers of grit upon the
recordings. In some cases the sound quality is such that you'd think these recordings
come from the 1930s (a high compliment, indeed). Those who have felt Clapton's recent
work has been a little too polished, perhaps overly produced, should find these versions to
their liking.
The live side, which opens with the 12-minute plus "Stormy Monday," gives Clapton a
chance to stretch out; an opportunity he takes full advantage of. "Early in the Morning,"
which features additional guitars from Albert Lee, is launched with a twang-y, sexy guitar
solo that sets the stage for the rest of the over seven-minute track. Other high points
include a muddy, molasses-oozing "Have You Ever Loved a Woman," a jamming
"Crossroads" and "Kind Hearted Woman."
There have been so many musical sides of Eric Clapton throughout his astonishing three
decade-long career, it's sometimes hard to keep track of the real Eric Clapton. For those
of you who forgot, he's right here.
(Steve Baltin)
Pilgrim
Eric Clapton has metamorphosed from tie-dyed guitar god for a mostly male congregation to
Armani-clad crooner and chart-certified ladies' man, yet it misses the point to focus on that transition
without considering '90s forays into blues (on From The Cradle, his brilliant 1994 live-in-the-studio
homage), techno, and the silky contemporary R&B of "Change The World." Pilgrim, his first studio
album of new songs since Journeyman, reflects all these facets in his most ambitious, and certainly
darkest solo project. Its title isn't casual: These are elliptical meditations on the ravages of time, as
preoccupied with matters of the spirit as affairs of the heart. "My Father's Eyes" opens the song
cycle with allusions to the traumatic death of toddler son Conor (the inspiration for '92's poignant
"Tears In Heaven"), while the title song adopts the fevered, falsetto vocal style of Curtis Mayfield to
riveting effect. Coproducer Simon Climie sculpts electronic orchestrations and favors clipped synth
rhythms, while Clapton himself largely eschews his once dominant, climactic electric solos for
restrained but potent acoustic filigree, staccato riffs, and fluid rhythm work, letting loose with a
rougher, more biting edge on the squalling "She's Gone."
(Sam Surtherland)
Retail Therapy
So what's with the title here? Does Eric Clapton, lamely disguised as x-sample,
seriously believe he can bolster retail with an album of bogus high-tech and
Deep Forest-style instrumentals? Minus Simon Climie's synth orchestrations,
Clapton's multi-faceted playing would be palatable at the least.
But Climie's heavy-handed stabs at contemporary dance make this the funniest
and/or saddest superstar bust since Paul McCartney's relatively innocuous
Fireman project in '94.
(Jeff Bateman )
From the cradle
The full-tilt blues album that Clapton had been promising for years, From the Cradle proves the
guitarist's enduring devotion to a form he had long relegated to merely a flavor in his music rather
than the main ingredient. Clapton's singing on the album is somewhat mannered; he tries to compete
with original versions of these songs by Muddy Waters, Charles Brown, and others, and there's no
way he's going to win that battle. Still, you can feel the emotional connection Clapton has with these
songs, and guitar aficionados will swoon over his fretwork on songs such as "Third Degree,"
"Someday After a While," and the incendiary "Groanin' the Blues."
(Daniel Durchholz)
From the Cradle was the first blues album in history to go to No. 1 on the Billboard album chart.
This 16-song tip of the hat to Willie Dixon, Leroy Carr, Muddy Waters, and other African
Americans whose music inspired Eric Clapton to pick up a guitar more than three decades back
also won the 1994 Best Traditional Blues Album Grammy. Despite such commercial triumphs, it's
hard to imagine even the most devout "Clapton is God" apostle claiming this is a blues classic,
though it's certainly a sincere and expertly played tribute to past masters, and a welcome return to
Clapton's roots. Old fans will particularly appreciate the generous helping of guitar Slowhand serves
up.
(Steve Stolder)
(Nederland)
(USA)
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