Eric Clapton - Pilgrim

Pilgrim - Eric Clapton - (2LP 180 Gram Vinyl) - Recorded at Olympic Studio in London in 1997, Pilgrim's 1998 release marked Clapton's first album of original material since 1989's Journeyman. Working with Simon Climie, Clapton's wish was to record a sad album according to his autobiography. Two of the songs were written after his son died in 1991 - those songs are "My Father's Eyes" and "Circus". The album finds Clapton experimenting with drum machines, synthesizers, guitars, and strings reminiscent of R&B. The Pilgrim song appears on the Lethal Weapon 4 soundtrack. Clapton and John Mayer resurrected the song "Broken Hearted" in 2005. Much of Eric Clapton's haunting new (1998) album is informed by the smooth R&B textures of his 1996 collaboration with Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds, 'Change the World.' Yet Pilgrim is the work of someone who has learned in the hardest way imaginable that although he cannot change the world, he might be able to change himself. On Pilgrim we encounter a Clapton who is heartbroken but artistically reinvigorated, a guitar hero who knows too well that despite that flattering "Clapton Is God" graffiti of yore, he is entirely human.