0419. Cream
Disraeli Gears

The last time we heard Eric Clapton was with Derek & The Dominos and this was a couple of years (and assorted albums) earlier. Ginger Baker was last heard with Fela Kuti (also a couple of years later). The only one here we've yet to encounter in another setting is singing bassist Jack Bruce, who'd earlier played with Manfred Mann, Blues Incorporated and, most imporantly for the formation of this group, the Graham Bond Organisation together with Baker.

Together they formed Cream and with a couple of the greatest tracks coming out of the electrified blues genre, Disraeli Gears is an album you've got to hear. The musics (mostly) great and both Bruce and Clapton sings sweetly on their respective songs, but Blue Condition shows Baker to be a far better drummer than singer.

The biggest downside to this album is that due to influence from other groups, the album's got a couple of tracks typical for it's age, songs that were more made to fit the "anti-mold" of the time than doing their own thing. Like the slow-and the campy Cockney-style(-ish) last track Mother's Lament, which, in the style of other bands at the time feels like it's there just for laughs in the studio and not music for the fans.