Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton, 461 Ocean Boulevard, RSO 4801.

I guess I expect too much. It's hard not to be disappointed with the Great Clapton, especially since he has always avoided that appellation. Well, there is very little flash here, very few places where the guitar leaps off the vinyl and bites you. This album is no Layla, nor is it homage to Leon Russell. There is little extended jamming. This is what I have come to expect from Eric Clapton, and it's not here. It's good work, humble craft resting on no reputation and striving for no artistic nirvana. It's good songs like "I Shot The Sheriff' (which could be a hit single, much to the dismay of the Wailers, who tried and failed to gain any ground with it the first time around), "Let It Grow" and "Mainline Florida", both originals, and the opening cut "Motherless Children", which has a really fine guitar figure to work with. A good album that cannot be adequately evaluated outside its context--that of a Clapton album. As such, it is still disappointing.

--Paul Grant