| Fresh Cream | 1966 |
| Disraeli Gears | review #2 | review #3 | 1967 |
| Wheels Of Fire | review #2 | 1968 |
| Goodbye | 1969 |
| Live Cream, Vol. 1 | 1970 |
| Live Cream, Vol. 2 | 1972 |
| The Very Best Of Cream (compilation) | 1995 |
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COMMENTS
you have shmucks judging cream,as if they could play or create music that would compare to these guru's of innovation,please do not post their statements it is a insult to what was probably one of greatest TRIO,thank you for your time and energy.sincerely,vodoochile.....p.s whoever this casey brennan is,defines the definition of the word shmuck!
[a couple minutes later in a separate e-mail:]
again.i am appalled at the fact that you don't even edit the moronic babbling of these people like casey brennan to continue to "rate"albums from this trio.please,please stop and take a look at what these morons write.they are absolutely without a doubt a lower class of humans,cream is a band that will never come along again.i have to stick up for cream do to the fact that this web site does not.and is it a website about cream.!!! sincerely,vodoochile
DEARSIR THIS ISRAYGORDONREID ILISTEN TOCREAM IN THESIXIES LOVESONGBADGE STILL;KNOWIT TODAY ALSO CROSSROADS AND WHITEROOM THANKS RAYGORDONREID JACKSONVILEFLA BUTBORN IN WAYCROSSGA JAN111955
(reviewed by Casey Brennan)
The first album by this psychedelic blues band consists of Eric Clapton (guitar/vocals), Jack Bruce (bass guitar/harmonica/vocals), and Ginger Baker (drums/vocals). It's a fine debut with a good amount of originals and several blues covers, the covers having some improvised bluesy guitar jams. It's an innovative album in the way they approach blues in rock n' roll here, and how heavy their sound was back in 1966. I think the poppy and shorter songs are the better ones, the vocal-intro and falsetto harmonising of "I Feel Free", the sweetly sung "Dreaming" and "N.S.U." with its nasty guitar licks at the end, are highlights on this set. "Sweet Wine" and "I'm So Glad" are other excellent songs, but out of the covers, the slow blues of "Sleepy Time" has good guitar licks and a solo that highlights the track. "Toad", written by Bruce, actually has a decent drum solo, because it's filled with energy and complicated patterns, which show that Baker was one of the best drummers from around that time.
A chunk of this album is dedicated to traditional and improvised bluesy workouts which are tedious to sit through, and considering that they are all placed directly in the middle of this release doesn't help matters. "Spoonful" has some wailing harmonica and inspired guitar playing, but it's too long and drawn out, "Cat's Squirrel" and "Four Until Late" are shorter and just OK songs, and "Rollin' And Tumblin'" is just a generic messy sounding blues, so it's horrible. As Cream were a little boring when doing long blues covers, on Disraeli Gears they would go for a more compact sound without all the improvised playing.
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(Casey Brennan's review)
Cream's second album, is full of great psychedelic blues and pop ditties, with lots of hooks and memorable melodies. "Sunshine Of Your Love" is the most known one, an important summer of love anthem, that contains a great heavy riff and immaculate guitar playing. That's one of several tunes that can qualify as a classic on here. "Strange Brew", has a distinctive catchy riff and poppy melody, "Tales Of Brave Ulysses" has a wah-wah guitar sound and interestingly sung lyrics, and "Swalbr" has a fast and furious riff with some colorful pyschedelic lyrics; simply it's Cream at their peak.
Eric's guitar sound is at it's best on "Outside Woman Blues", killer guitar fills and solo (it's a little short though). Also, their is the dreamy "World Of Pain", the Ray Davies-sounding vocals on the moody "Blue Condition", and the simple rocker "Take It Back". "Dance The Night Away" and "We're Going Wrong" are good too, so the only just OK song is the ditty "Mother's Lament", but that's just a short spoken ditty tacked on at the end of the album. Claptons electric guitar soars, the rhythm section is solid, and altogether it's an excellent album. Not quite a classic album (but that's OK, it's just very consistent and memorable), but it's an essential one of 1967, with a good dose of pyschedelic and blues. Although Clapton is not the head guy in the band, he along with Hendrix became the rulers of Rock for a short while for about a year or so after Disraeli Gears was released.
A great psychedelic album. With their second release, considered by most fans and critics to be their best, Cream give us a wonderful example of hard rock blues at its best. And that cover is probably as psychedelic as they get, too. All of the colors and flowers display the mood of the album so well, and it's also fun to just look at, certainly one of the greatest album covers ever. And the music is also wonderful! From the opening classic "Strange Brew" through the hilarious "Mother's Lament," this album is a near-perfect example of mid-to-late 60s psychedelia at it's best. The only problems are the forgettable "Blue Condition" and "We're Going Wrong," but those are my only notable complaints; the rest of the songs are awesome.
When it comes to the hit "Sunshine Of Your Love," I'd say that the riff in that one is better than any given Stones riff, and the rest of the song rules too. It's the longest on the album at just a little over four minutes, and it may or may not be my favorite on here. I don't know since next is "World Of Pain," another memorable and classic entry with one of the very best psychedelic chorus out there, and, ooh, then it's "Dance The Night Away," which has a fantastic melody to accompany an excellent chorus.
"Tales of Brave Ulysses" is another wonderful entry with a great beat to it, and I simply LOVE the short little "Outside Woman Blues." So Disraeli Gears may not be as good as Magical Mystery Tour, as far as psychedelia goes, but it's a million times better than Satanic, full of classic songs, catchy riffs, and fantastic guitar work. I'd disagree with those who call it the best album pshychedelic music gave us, mostly because of "Blue Condition" and "We're Going Wrong," but aside from those I truly understand why people make that statement.
I've been waiting so long to be reviewing this. If you caught that, give yourself permission to email me and tell me so, and you too can save bucks on your preorder of Apollo 18's shameless overmarketed debut album to be recorded sometime this fall! Plus, it will contain the best cover of Sunshine Of Your Love that you have never heard!
OK, now that obligatory promopimping is taken care of, Disraeli Gears is one heckuva great rock album. I don't care if you hate Clapton or love him, Cream's 2nd album is hands-down the riff-heaviest album of 1967, arguably the best non-Beatles British release of the year, and arguably the 2nd best pre-Led Zeppelin hard rock album (with Are You Experienced obviously winning out there). At any rate, this is a real melting pot of influences, with a lotta blues, some pop, a lotta rock n roll, and a smidgeon of jazz all coming together for a really rather unique listen. Naturally, on top of the originality factor, everything is played par excellence...what else would you expect from a band with Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker in it? Every song (yes, even Blue Condition and We're Going Wrong) is, in the words of Lawrence Welk, luffly.
So, what are some winners out of this luffly array? My bets are on Sunshine Of Your Love, Strange Brew, and Tales o Brave Ulysses. Sunshine needs no introduction, and if you don't know that riff you are indeed sheltered. It's easily the best riff Clapton ever churned out, and that is indeed saying something. Meanwhile, Strange Brew is THE quintessential flower power rocker, with a deliciously psychedelic guitar tone, falsetto vocals, fun (but not nonsensical) lyrics, and excellent playing throughout. Tales Of Brave Ulysses is also a hippie rocker of sorts, this time with some killer wah-wah segments and a lot of low-key (but still present) fury and a set of 100% psychedelic lyrics that take a page from Homer.
But we also can't forget the rest of the songs. Another close contender for the top three is Swlabr (short for She Walks Like A Bearded Rainbow) which is an excellent rocker about a bearded lady. Also winners are World Of Pain, Dance The Night Away, and Outside Woman Blues. Heck, even the ultra-goofy Blue Condition and the slightly too serious We're Going Wrong are pretty dang good. Overall, this is an essential Summer Of Love record, and the wide-ranging influence it has had on such bands as Mountain, Led Zeppelin, and other hard rockers is obvious and very cool.
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(Casey Brennan's review)
A double album, the first part consisting of nine studio songs, the second half with four very long live songs. "Crossroads" is the shortest one (at four minutes) in the live set, and is a classic live staple. That can't be said for the others, "Traintime" is a lenghty and boring harmonica driven tune, "Spoonful" is a way too long (16 minutes!) and deathly boring jam, even worse is "Toad" which was fine at five minutes, but is another 16 minutes here -- the longest drum solo I've heard!
While the live half is almost unlistenable, the studio side is very good and has some gems on it, like the classic opener "White Room". It has a haunting melody, great wah-wah guitar playing courtesy of Clapton, obviously, and some falsetto-sung bridges. "Sitting On Top Of The World" is next, a blues delight that has some slowly sung and hazy verses, before a magnificent guitar solo comes in. The next three songs are quite different though, they are light, experimental, and moody songs; "Passing The Time" goes from softly-sung and carnival sounding verses, to fast and rambling choruses, "As You Said" is a nice tune filled with cellos, and "Pressed Rat And The Warthog" is a subdued novelty tune.
"Politician" brings things back to normalcy though; it is characterized by a neat blues riff, and is overall a great Cream tune. "Those Were The Days" (a great rocking song with chiming bells), "Born Under A Bad Sign" (more good blues), and "Deserted Cities Of Heart" (a furious half-folk rocker) round out the album. Just buy it for the studio side, it's as good as Disraeli Gears usually, just a little more varied on here. Don't even worry about the boring live part!
HIGH POINTS: White Room, Politician, Crossroads, Pressed Rat And Warthog, As You Said. LOW POINTS: Toad, Spoonful, Traintime.
Coming off of their psychedelic classic Disraeli Gears, Cream decided to showcase their live side that served as an expansion of their mostly poppy studio work, consisting of lengthy improvisatory jams that were extensions of a few of their earlier classics, most notably the bluesy "Spoonful". Apparently, though, they felt like attaching this effort to a set of studio songs, which in retrospect was a fatal mistake. While the studio half is a quite noteworthy set of heavy blues with catchy melodies and very interesting musical ideas that stays more or less consistent throughout, the live half is a mostly pointless excuse for solo wankfest between the three members of the band, of which only "Crossroads" is a real highlight - it's a great interpretation of a Robert Johnson blues number, and is highlighted by a great Eric Clapton solo that's considered one of the finest of all time - one that I definitely can't deny the quality of.
That performance, however, is the only saving grace of this live record, as the dreadful harmonica-driven "Traintime" (which is proof that Jack Bruce might have been a fine bassist, but he sure couldn't sing on stage), a "Spoonful" that turns into a horribly overlong blues jam, and, now here's the real thrill for you - a Ginger Baker drum solo called "Toad" that, like "Spoonful" also lasts 16 minutes. Maybe John Bonham ripped off the general structure of it on Led Zeppelin II's "Moby Dick", but he also had the sense to bash away for only a couple minutes between the great riff of that song, and not for over a friggin' quarter of an hour. But fortunately, though, this part of the album can be skipped in favor of the studio half, since they're both on separate records - just shut it off after "Crossroads" as a matter of fact.
Now for the studio tunes, the only real reason for the album to exist. The opening "White Room" is the ultimate classic here, and deservedly so, as it has a heavy riff to kill for, a really strong unforgettable melody, interesting lyrics and quite an arrangement. "Politician" is another quite noteworthy direct tune about of our friends in the government, and like "White Room" it also contains a solid riff and memorable soloing. Even the joke tune "Pressed Rat And Warthog" (spoken by Ginger Baker) has lyrics that so over-the-top dumb the song itself is highly entertaining, embellished by trumpet to give it a nice mood. "As You Said" even has distorted violin that works quite a lot better than you might expect to raise that emotional ballad to quite a decent height.
"Passing The Time" is another one of the 'departures' of the sound that works very well, going from soft to hard rocking maybe in not the most graceful way imaginable, but it's a rather good tune anyway. "Born Under A Bad Sign" and the good though somewhat awkward "Sitting On Top Of The World", meanwhile, are two worthwhile bluesier tunes that might be somewhat unmemorable, but have strong guitar work and tight playing to keep you hooked. Finally, the two tracks near the end of the album, "Deserted Cities Of The Heart" and "Those Were The Days", the former of which is a nice breakaway folk-rocker to close out the studio half, and the latter of which has a funny bell-driven chorus ('those were the days... yes they were'). On its' own merit, I'd give the studio LP a solid 8 easily, probably even 8.5, but unlike the above review, I can't let the live half go unpunished. If it weren't for the fact that you can easily just not put that record on at all, I'd objectively have lowered the rating even further.
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COMMENTS
You two are strange, strange men. I actually like the 17-minute jam of "Spoonful". Now THAT'S what I call live power. "Toad" sucks, though--who needs a drum solo that long?
(reviewed by Casey Brennan)
This was basically an afterthought, since Cream already broke up by late 1968 (October, or November to be somewhat exact). Two more live songs on here, blah (you can tell I'm not always fond of live stuff), but, hey this time they are decent if not too important; the live tracks are "I'm So Glad", "Politician", and "Sitting On Top Of The World". The classic Eric Clapton-George Harrison song "Badge" is on here, a perfect blend of guitars and great harmonising in the middle eights really make the song. The rest is not bad either, just leftover songs from 1968; "Doing That Scrapeyard Thing" (a piano tune, with a great melody), "What A Bring Down" (a tune that sounds unlike Cream in the beginning verses), and "Anyone For Tennis" (a nice and quiet song). Farewell to Cream, a short lived but very good group.
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