Review Summary: Cream make a tremendous step up from their debut and reach their peak in the process.
Let’s get this straight from the beginning:
Disraeli Gears is Cream’s magnum opus. The powerful combination of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker had to get used to playing with each other, something clearly audible in the sound of their first album
Fresh Cream. It’s follow-up, however, is quite a different story.
Disraeli Gears (originally just dully titled
Cream) has Clapton moving out behind Bruce’s somewhat dominant performance on the group’s debut and decided to show why he was already considered one of the best guitarist of his day at the time. This causes Cream to hit their peak, and create something consistently compelling.
The reason that
Fresh Cream didn’t feel accomplished enough was mainly because of two things: the group covered a great deal of the material on the album, and their own didn’t feel quite well-developed enough.
Disraeli Gears does away with both of these issues, as the material is primarily self-composed and almost all of the compositions found here blow anything from its predecessor out of the water. The legendary
Sunshine of Your Love takes the cake, of course. It opens with one of the best-known riffs of all time, and not just credit goes to Clapton here. The interplay between him and Bruce is better than it has ever been on any other Cream song, and the solo shows the guitarist’s true talents.
Sunshine is sung dually by them, which works wonders for the track because of the contrast between their voices, and proves best how much the interplay between the boys has grown in a relatively short space of time. Also surprising is the fact how much he stepped forth vocally in just a year of time. Clapton had been shy about singing at first, but it is quite assumable that his time in Cream gave him the confidence to later pursue a solo career. This becomes clear already from the start, as opener and other definite highlight
Strange Brew, apart from the wonderful use of the wah-pedal, also has the guitarist already on lead vocals, providing a major entrance for him.
And as with any excellent album, power is also found in diversity. The middle section of the album is particularly interesting. It starts with the dreamier tracks
World of Pain and
Dance the Night Away, on which Bruce his at his dreamy vocal best, the same going for his bass skills. Then, a sort break follows in the form of the Baker-sung track
Blue Condition, the silliest and weakest song on the album. The following tunes
Tales of Brave Ulysses and
Swablr provide a direct counter to the earlier tracks Bruce was most dominant on. Although still sung by him, it is also very much Clapton’s fierce guitar attack that stands out. Closing the middle section is the much underrated
We’re Going Wrong, which, considering the obvious drug-consumed state of the boys, is perfectly titled. Bruce especially is fun to listen to, is higher voice stretching out the chorus ensuring a very trippy mood.
Disraeli Gears then closes with
Outside Woman Blues and
Take It Back. Being traditional, relaxed blues-rockers, nothing is more fitting at wrapping things up, leaving the traditional song
Mother’s Lament as an inadequate closer that does not warrant more than one listen. It is moments as these that do not earn the album a full classic rating, for
Disraeli Gears definitely finds Cream at the height of their powers. It’s just about a perfect mix of traditional blues influences, psychedelics and virtuosic performances, or shortly: what Cream stood for to achieve in the first place. If anything by them, get this. An essential 60’s album.
The Wonderful Trippy Experience Known as Cream Was:
- Eric Patrick ‘Slowhand’ Clapton ~ Guitar, Backing Vocals, Lead Vocals
- John Symon Asher ‘Jack’ Bruce ~ Lead Vocals, Bass Guitar, Harmonica, Piano
- Peter Edward ‘Ginger’ Baker ~ Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals
Cream Classics:
Strange Brew
Sunshine Of Your Love
World of Pain
Tales of Brave Ulysses
Swablr
We’re Going Wrong
