Category: SACD

Title: Eric Clapton – Slowhand (1977) [SACD 2014]
Genre: Rock, Blues Rock
Format: MCH SACD ISO

After the guest-star-drenched No Reason to Cry failed to make much of an impact commercially, 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. 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 laid-back virtuosity — although Clapton and his band are never flashy, their playing is masterful and assured. That assurance and the album’s eclectic material make Slowhand rank with 461 Ocean Boulevard as Eric Clapton’s best albums.

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Title: Eric Clapton – Pilgrim (1998) [Audio Fidelity 2014]
Genre: Rock, Blues Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

One strange thing about Eric Clapton’s ’90s success is that it relied almost entirely on covers and new versions of classic hits; he released no albums of new material between 1989’s Journeyman and 1998’s Pilgrim. In the decade between the two albums, he had two new hits — his moving elegy to his deceased son, “Tears in Heaven,” and the slick contemporary soul of the Babyface-written “Change the World” — and Pilgrim tries to reach a middle ground between these two extremes, balancing tortured lyrics with smooth sonic surfaces. Working with producer Simon Climie, his collaborator on the TDF side project, Clapton has created a numbingly calm record that, for all of its lyrical torment, displays no emotion whatsoever. Much of the problem lies in the production, which relies entirely on stiff mechanical drumbeats, gauzy synthesizers, and meandering instrumental interludes. These ingredients could result in a good record, as “Change the World” demonstrated, but not here, due to Pilgrim’s monotonous production. Unfortunately, Clapton doesn’t want to shake things up — his singing is startlingly mannered, even on emotionally turbulent numbers like “My Father’s Eyes” or “Circus.” Even worse, he’s content to take a back seat instrumentally, playing slight solos and fills as colorless as the electronic backdrops. The deadened sonics would make Pilgrim a chore even if there were strong songs on the record, but only a handful of tunes break through the murk. Considering that Journeyman, his last album of original material, was a fine workmanlike effort and that From the Cradle and Unplugged crackled with vitality, the blandness of Pilgrim is all the more disappointing.

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Title: Eric Clapton – Behind The Sun (1985) [Audio Fidelity 2014]
Genre: Rock, Blues Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Eric Clapton’s career was in decline in the early ’80s when he switched record labels from Polydor to Warner Bros., and his debut Warner album, Money and Cigarettes, became his first to fall below gold-record status in more than six years. As a result, Warner looked critically at his follow-up, the Phil Collins-produced Behind the Sun, in the fall of 1984 and rejected the first version submitted, insisting that he record several new songs written by Jerry Williams, backed by Los Angeles session players under the auspices of company producers Lenny Waronker and Ted Templeman. Warner then emphasized the new tracks, releasing two of them, “Forever Man” (which reached the Top 40) and “See What Love Can Do,” as singles. The resulting album, not surprisingly, was somewhat schizophrenic, though the company may have been correct in thinking that the album as a whole was competent without being very exciting. The added tracks were not bad, but they were not the sure-fire hits they were supposed to be. As usual, there was some effective guitar soloing (notably on “Same Old Blues”), but despite the tinkering, Behind the Sun was not one of Clapton’s better albums.

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Title: Eric Clapton – 461 Ocean Boulevard (Japan SHM-SACD 2021) (1974/2021)
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO

This is not a reissue of the SHM-SACD 2010 The matrix code of this one disk is UIGY-15039 2 SHM-SACD reissue. Features 2018 DSD mastering based on the US original tapes. *** This SHM-SACD was FIRST released on 26 May 2021. However Universal in Japan admitted on 28 August 2021 (https://www.universal-music.co.jp/eric-clapton/news/2021-08-20/) that the source of the disc was *not* the “US original analog tape” and “2018 DSD Master” as stated in the booklet and OBI. They offered replacement/refund to the japanese buyers. This matter has been corrected in October 2021 (the correct disc has a “2” in the matrix code) and the SHM-SACDs now carry the 2018 DSD Master from the “US original analog tapes”, and NOT from the “2010 DSD Master” sourced from japanese copies of the master tapes as does the SHM-SACD issued in 2010 (https://www.discogs.com/release/5961164-Eric-Clapton-461-Ocean-Boulevard). The version of this release using the incorrect (Japanese) master tape can be found here : Eric Clapton – 461 Ocean Boulevard Comes with lyrics and a description. Edited in DSD by Terukazu Kawashita at Universal Music Studios, Tokyo, in 2018.

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Title: Eric Clapton – 461 Ocean Boulevard (1974) [Reissue 2004]
Genre: Rock, Blues Rock
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

461 Ocean Boulevard is the second solo studio album by Eric Clapton that marked his return to recording after recovering from a three-year addiction to heroin. The album title refers to the address on Ocean Boulevard in Golden Beach, Florida where Clapton lived while recording the album. The street address of the house was changed after the album’s release due to fans flocking to the property.

461 Ocean Boulevard is Eric Clapton’s second studio solo album, arriving after his side project of Derek and the Dominos and a long struggle with heroin addiction. Although there are some new reggae influences, the album doesn’t sound all that different from the rock, pop, blues, country, and R&B amalgam of Eric Clapton. However, 461 Ocean Boulevard is a tighter, more focused outing that enables Clapton to stretch out instrumentally. Furthermore, the pop concessions on the album – the sleek production, the concise running times – don’t detract from the rootsy origins of the material, whether it’s Johnny Otis’ “Willie and the Hand Jive,” the traditional blues “Motherless Children,” Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” or Clapton’s emotional original “Let It Grow.” With its relaxed, friendly atmosphere and strong bluesy roots, 461 Ocean Boulevard set the template for Clapton’s ’70s albums. Though he tried hard to make an album exactly like it, he never quite managed to replicate its charms.

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Title: Eric Clapton – 461 Ocean Boulevard (1974) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2010]
Genre: Rock, Blues Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Reissue features the high-fidelity SHM-SACD format (fully compatible with standard SACD player, but it does not play on standard CD players) and the 2010 DSD remastering. DSD Transferred by Hitoshi Takiguchi. 461 Ocean Boulevard is Eric Clapton’s second studio solo album, arriving after his side project of Derek and the Dominos and a long struggle with heroin addiction. Although there are some new reggae influences, the album doesn’t sound all that different from the rock, pop, blues, country, and R&B amalgam of Eric Clapton. However, 461 Ocean Boulevard is a tighter, more focused outing that enables Clapton to stretch out instrumentally. Furthermore, the pop concessions on the album — the sleek production, the concise running times — don’t detract from the rootsy origins of the material, whether it’s Johnny Otis’ “Willie and the Hand Jive,” the traditional blues “Motherless Children,” Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” or Clapton’s emotional original “Let It Grow.” With its relaxed, friendly atmosphere and strong bluesy roots, 461 Ocean Boulevard set the template for Clapton’s ’70s albums. Though he tried hard to make an album exactly like it, he never quite managed to replicate its charms.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)