Cream - Disraeli Gears

Media:	Audio CD
Record label:	Polydor / Pgd
Release date:	07 April, 1998
List price:	~~$9.98~~
Our price:	$7.99 that is 20% off!

Disraeli Gears

Average rating: Stars

The Ol' Sophmore Slump Has Nothing on Cream.

People will say this is the best Cream album. I can't say that -I've never heard any other Cream album. But I do love it. You get classics Strange Brew, Sunshine of Your Love, Tales of Brave Ulysses, Swlabr and We're Going Wrong as well as some of their lesser-known songs, World Of Pain, Dance the Night Away (My favorite) and Take It Back. The slightly-lesser songs are Outside Woman Blues and Blue Condition, and if Mother's Lament isn't a joke, I'll eat Disraeli Gears. (But my friend's vynil copy)

Disraeli Gears - Cream

Cream In High Gear

When you play this album you can almost smell the patchouli. Creams' 2nd and perhaps best album came out in the latter 60s when pop was music was getting heavier and expanding to other areas. Jimi Hendrix had arrived and opened the door to even more experimentation than The Beatles had already provided with Sgt Pepper. In England, Eric Clapton was already a legendary guitar player because of his stints with The Yardbirds and John Mayalls'Bluesbreakers respectively.Clapton, the restless musical wanderer, was searching for something completely different and unique than he had found in his two former bands and was hoping that his collabaration with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker would bear fruit.
Cream immediately became the first "supergroup" as well as the first power trio. Their first album, "Fresh Cream", foretold of a new musical direction, part blues, part jazz, part pop/rock and pure creative energy. Fresh Cream wasn't a great album but it was very good and promised that this band was going somewhere and should be watched carefully. It was mostly because of Claptons'guitar god image that Cream became a supergroup but after one listen it became apparent that Bruce and Baker were just as exciting as Eric and would have a lot to do with the success of this new "hybrid" band.
Aware that the world was watching, Cream released their 2nd album, "Disraeli Gears", a virtual masterpiece. From the opening strains of "Strange Brew", a modern electric blues number with Clapton on vocals through "Swlabr (acronymn for "she was like a bearded rainbow")and We're Going Wrong", it was evident that Cream could live up to the supergroup hype that the press and public had bestowed on them. There was energy and drive in every song on the album. Bruces' moody and rich vocals gave the band a distinct sound on top of Gingers' manic but controlled drumming and Clapton was on fire playing clean bluesy notes which puncuated everything else that was going on. There was a lot of music coming out of 3 guys here and a lot of variety in every song."Sunshine of Your Love" hit the charts both in the UK and America and made Cream a household word.
Other songs to note: World of Pain with Clapton on vocal and wah-wah pedal over Bruces' mournful but beautiful bass playing, it's a nice ballad.Tales of Brave Uylsses is Bruce at his best on vocals and the lyrics, written by Peter Brown, are mysterious and dark.Clapton provides the wah-wah pedal again, fittingly so and Ginger Baker pounds on the double foot bass and keeps the rhythm moving along.Outside Woman Blues is a blues song sung by Clapton with the memorable line "you can't trust your wife and your outside woman too". Clapton plays a clean ascending guitar line doubled by Jacks' bass and there's a short but effective Clapton solo in the middle. We're Going Wrong is another beautiful ballad sung by Bruce and Ginger Baker even gets a vocal on Blue Condition
In retrospect, Disraeli Gears is not a long album but it's the kind that you just might want to play again when it ends. This album is a good indicator of where popular music was at at this point in time and even hinted at where it might be going.Creams' life as a band was too short but they were long on creativity and innovation, one of the best ever.If you're only going to buy 1 Cream album this might be the one you want

Cream - Disraeli Gears

An Incredible Musical Journey

I think that Cream really raised the musical bar to infinite heights with this mesmerising album. I rate this as their fnest work, as the power trio took music to a new plateau, which, in my opinion is what great bands such as Cream succeed in doing. Clapton's wailing, bluesy guitar work is superb here, especially on Sunshine of Your Love and Tales of Brave Ulysses. Jack Bruce proves why he is probably the greatest bassist that rock has ever seen, while also demonstrating a wonderful vocal talent as well. Ginger Baker plays the drums masterfully as well with double kicks galore. This is the band that paved the way for wannabes like Led Zeppelin to follow but never quite reach the infinitely high musical plateau set by the power trio during the two short years in which they forever changed music.