Disraeli Gears

When you consider that the album was released in 1967, it’s almost on a par with the era's other masterpieces, such as Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced? or the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Cream evolved the simple blues rock of their debut album into a much groovier form of psychedelic rock. At least, for the most part. This makes the boring or silly tracks all the more painful: 'Blue Condition', written and 'sung' by Ginger Baker, is particularly bad; 'Take it back' is a dull blues rock number; and 'Mother's Lament' is simply silly English humour that belongs on a comedy stage, not on an album. Conversely, tracks such as “Strange Brew”, “Sunshine of Your Love”, “World of Pain”, “Dance the Night Away”, “Tales of Brave Ulysses” and “SWLABR” are genuine psychedelic rock classics. Let' put it like this: This is a strong album, so just ignore the weaker tracks.

well of course spotify I'll take White Room after listening to this album. Doesn't belong to this album but the album itself is good too, but not on white room level.

mniam

Does the Bluesy Dad Rock thing of having two great songs amidst a sea of self indulgent noodling. Not as bad as Creedence though.

Oh cmon give me something good thats not boring for once

This is the most 3 star worthy 3 star album im ever going to give in the history of 3 star albums.

There were a few good songs on here and the rest i could fall asleep to

Your grandmas favorite album

I only knew Sunshine Of Your Love which is an iconic song, and a really good one. The rest of the album isn't all that exciting. I like Eric Clapton, but I can't say I'm really invested in everything he's done. Anyway, this record is ok just because of that iconic song.

Sunshine Of Your Love is a great tune, as evidenced by almost everyone who covered it. The original, here, just feels lacklustre. The album as a whole generally quite a boring listen. Best tune is the throwaway "Mother's Lament" at the end. Also, Clapton & Baker are total pricks.

Canción, y ahora álbum, que me recuerdan a papá.

As we all know, Eric Clapton is a bit of a knob, but regardless this is undoubtedly purchase quality for me.

Fantastic bass-prominent, distorted psych rock meets blues, whilst packing a real bite; coming in at merely 33 minutes, this album contains a multitude of Cream's finest successes, not least the one-two hip-wiggling blast of "Strange Brew" and "Sunshine Of Your Love", before taking a more expansive approach on numbers such as "Dance The Night Away", "Blue Condition" and "We're Going Wrong".

Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce and Clapton exert a stunning degree of mutual understanding with one another, where multiple focused listens will reveal fascinating complexities to the arrangements here. It's a great showpiece, in particular, for Baker's effortlessly versatile drumming.

Pffffft, just not a big electric blues guy. Liked the more psychedelic elements. And Sunshine of your Love is a tune

I think this was quite an enjoyable listen.

Strange Brew? OPETH REFEREBCE RAAAHHHHAHAHBABAHJ

When I was 13 and I begged my mom for a guitar, she got me a $100 off-brand strat for xmas on the condition I actually take lessons. For about a year, I took lessons from a couple boomer journeymen at a hole-in-the-wall guitar shop. These were sweet guys who wanted me to understand a little bit about rock history. When I asked them to teach me an At the Drive-In song that was way too hard for a beginner, they redirected me to Cream and Black Sabbath. I acquired an appreciation for songs like "Sunshine of Your Love" and "White Room" based on these lessons, but by the time I reached college I had developed a strong distaste for Eric Clapton (for all obvious reasons of musical taste and social decency). Nevertheless, I held onto an ideal of Clapton's 60s work with the Yardbirds, Blind Faith, and Cream as somehow more restrained and cooler because of these bands' connections to Swinging London.

But wow, this record is bad. Like, way worse than I remember. The boomers' weed must have really sucked because I simply cannot hear what hypnotized them into thinking Clapton was some kind of guitar god. The songs are boring and plodding -- they don't play the blues well (even compared to their British contemporaries) and their psychedelic bits are laughably bad. Check out these lyrics:

"So many fantastic colours, I feel in a wonderland.
Many fantastic colours, makes me feel so good.
You've got that pure feel,
Such good responses,
Got that rainbow feel,
But the rainbow has a beard."

Just terrible. A friend said it best, "these lyrics are what Nixon would've said had Abbie Hoffman succeeded in dosing him."

I've had this LP in my collection for a long time and I guess it makes sense I haven't had the urge to take it out and listen to it in 10+ years. I suppose I understand why it landed in the rock canon because it's a power trio of instrumental virtuosos who made a soft psych record during the Summer of Love. But, to my ears, it stacks up very poorly against its contemporaries and is utterly inessential listening.

The most uneven album I've come across so far, with very high high points (Sunshine of Your Love) and very low lows (Mother's Lament).

It was fine, but not really remarkable for me

A classic

This record has been held up as a classic for forever, but I don't think I've ever listened all the way through before. I'll talk about the Clapton of it all later and try to focus on the album as a whole first. Overall, I think I expected them to do more here - more psychedelia, more showmanship, just more. This is a very tight record, and I appreciate that restraint. Judging this against its peers, it's solidly one of the better blues & psych-rock albums of the era but I'm not sure it earns all the praise it gets. Had they not all gone on to have notable post-Cream careers, the band might not have carried so much mystique through the years.

Alright, the Clapton of it all... There are hundreds (thousands?) of guitar players who sound like Clapton...NOW. But that's because he stood out so much in his prime. As a young guitar player, I revered Clapton on the top tier of players - right up there with Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page. Though that might have been based more on reputation than actual knowledge of his catalog. It feels like the recordings only tell part of the story and his legend was really born on stage. In any case, I think this is Clapton's peak era - pre self-indulgence, pre tragic fatherhood, pre pandemic hot takes. Just a muppet-looking English dude shredding some blues guitar. Nobody has ever loved me the way English dudes in the 60s loved 'borrowing' African American music of the 30s-50s.

Psychedelische rock uit '67, maar deze keer wel interessant (looking at you, Country Joe).

Not every song here is a winner and I think overall the vocals could be better, but the quality of the guitar playing more than makes up for it. Favorites were Sunshine Of Your Love, Tales Of Brave Ulysses, SWLABR, Outside Woman Blues, and Take It Back.

I get the progression and this is solid, but just not my favorite feel. A few good memorable ones in there and the musicianship is good. 3.