Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 04/07/1998
Run Time: 33:37
Cream teamed up with producer
Felix Pappalardi for their second album,
Disraeli Gears, a move that helped push the power trio toward
psychedelia and also helped give the album a thematic coherence missing from the debut. This, of course, means that
Disraeli Gears gets further away from the pure
blues improvisatory troupe they were intended to be, but it does get them to be who they truly are: a massive, innovative power trio. The
blues still courses throughout
Disraeli Gears -- the swirling kaleidoscopic
"Strange Brew" is built upon a riff lifted from
Albert King -- but it's filtered into saturated colors, as it is on
"Sunshine of Your Love," or it's slowed down and blurred out as it is on the ominous murk of
"Tales of Brave Ulysses." It's a pure
psychedelic move that's spurred along by
Jack Bruce's flourishing collaboration with
Pete Brown. Together, this pair steers this album away from recycled
blues-rock and toward its eccentric British core, for with the fuzzy freak-out
"Swlabr," the
music hall flourishes of
"Dance the Night Away," the swinging
"Take It Back," and of course, the schoolboy singalong
"Monther's Lament," this is a very British record. Even so, this crossed the ocean and became a major hit in America as well, because for no matter how whimsical certain segments are,
Cream is still a heavy
rock trio and
Disraeli Gears is a quintessential heavy
rock album of the '60s. Yes, its
psychedelic trappings tie it forever to 1967, but the imagination of the arrangements, the strength of the compositions, and especially the force of the musicianship make this album transcend its time as well.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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