Two Montreal psychedelic powerhouses, four-piece Suuns and producer Radwan Gahzi Mounmeh (otherwise known as Jerusalem in My Heart), teamed up in 2012 (but didn’t release the collaboration until three years later) to create a new project that mixes Suuns’ rock aesthetic with Mounmeh’s tripped-out Middle Eastern sounds. It’s mind and tongue twisting.
What do I mean? Well, the first track is titled “2amoutu I7tirakan.” The numbers are used to reflect Arabic sounds that have no good western written translation. The track sounds like a forgotten relic from Vangelis’ Blade Runner score. “Metal” is a great cut that shows how western rock and Middle Eastern beats can work so well together. “Self” blends Middle Eastern chanting with weird electro-blip percussion. “In Touch,” with its almost subliminal bass and building beats, is perfectly suited for playing in the glass elevator you’re taking to the upper floors of the casino hotel to meet your lover / the contract killer you’ve hired.
“Gazelles in Flight” begins with what sounds like a film reel flapping after it’s made its run through a projector. It builds into weird insect-like sounds and then into something that sounds like a Claudio Simonetti giallo film score track from the 1980’s. It’s wonderfully weird. The album closes with “3attam Babey,” an eight-minute track of desert mirages and a mix of touches from the likes of Bauhaus, Joy Division, and early Pink Floyd.
One of the most incredible things about this mind warp of a record is that it was recorded in one week back in 2012. One week! A longer team-up between them may produce something that can transport us to the astral plane. I hope they do this soon. I’d love to check out that place.
The New Pornographers returned in 2014 after a far too long absence to bring us another masterfully crafted album of power pop. The Canadian supergroup’s Brill Bruisers sounds like a long-lost ELO record and is a fine piece of work desperately needed in this world of pop divas, TV show idols, bro’ rock, country-rap, and booty call music.
The opener (and title track) starts with blaring guitars, powerful drums, vocals that swirl with great melodies, and a touch of psychedelic synths. Vocalist / guitarist A.C. Newman and his crew seem to channel the stadium-filling power of early ELO records on it. “Champions of Red Wine” doesn’t refer to my wife and one of her best friends, but is rather a fun song from outer space (judging by the poppy space lounge keyboards) sung by the always mesmerizing Neko Case. The band knocks this one out of the park.
“Fantasy Fools” will have you jumping and dancing, as it’s nothing but joyful. The keyboards on it are the hidden key to the song’s power. Those same keyboards are front and center during “War on the East Coast,” in which Dan Bejar worries more about potentially botching a relationship than about world chaos and bad news. “Backstairs” brings back the ELO influence and is big, booming, and wonderful. I can’t wait to hear this one live. It swirls into mind trip material and is all the better for it. “Marching Orders” is peppy with happy keyboards and Neko Case’s happy vocals. You can visualize her dancing in the recording booth as she sings. I love the way “Born with a Sound” dabbles in electro. The New Pornographers have the luxury of being able to do whatever the hell they want, so an electro-rock cut doesn’t jar the flow of the album at all (and Kathryn Calder’s backing vocals on it are excellent).
If you’re worried the New Pornographers are turning into an electro band, have no fear. “Dancehall Domine” sounds like something off The Electric Version with its big guitars, great Newman and Case vocal trades, and straight-up rock drums, and “Spidyr” sounds like it could’ve been a track from Mass Romantic. “Hi-Rise” and the closer, “You Tell Me Where,” dive back into the synth-heavy sounds, but it all works. “You Tell Me Where” is a nice grand finale and I’m sure is a big set-ender at their live shows.
We needed this record. It’s refreshing and lovely – the best kind of porn, really.
Keep your mind open.
[You won’t get bruised if you subscribe. It’s painless.]
I’m not surprised that Goat’s Commune opens with a track called “Talk to God,” because a Goat album (let alone a live performance) feels like a direct transmission from another plane where beings beyond our understanding dwell and bless us with insight and wisdom.
Goat, the mysterious Swedish voodoo rock band, had another solid record that went straight into my “Best of 2014” list with Commune. “Talk to God” hypnotizes you out of the gate with its Arabic / African guitar licks, humming bass, and those sultry, mysterious female vocals (sexily singing “Call my name when you talk to God.”).
“Words,” with droning guitar that sounds like something Giorgio Moroder composed, furthers Goat’s theme of communing with things beyond our ken. The weird, high-pitched chants on “The Light Within” definitely sound like something from beyond this reality, and the guitar solo may well send you there.
“To Travel the Path Unknown” could be the theme of listening to any Goat album. You never know where it will lead you and it may change each time. The opening lyric claims, “There is only one true meaning of life, and that is to be a positive force in the constant creation of evolution.” Heavy stuff, but a Goat album is not for the weak. Don’t play one unless you are ready to face the consequences of an expanded mind.
“Goatchild” continues the band’s theme of using their name in at least one song title per record. It’s also the first song on their first two albums to feature male vocals, which contrast nicely with the duo female vocals throughout most of the tracks as the lyrics take us beyond the moon and sun.
“The spirit world is everything,” Goat claims on “Goatslaves.” They’re right, of course. This world here, in which I am typing a review that cannot truly encapsulate this record, is illusion. We are slaves to it because we fear what lies beyond the veil we keep over our eyes. The beats on this are so good they’re almost terrifying, which is just how Goat likes it. A bit of fear keeps you honest, and liars never do well in the spirit world.
“Hide from the Sun” is a magnificent song to take with you across the desert during your pilgrimage to a holy temple, an oasis full of sweet water and fruits and beautiful naked people, or the treadmill. Just don’t be surprised if you abandon that run on the treadmill for a good sweat in the sauna while listening to this track, because it may make you seek sweat lodge visions.
“Bondye” is a fantastic instrumental with swirling, mesmerizing beats that build to a frenzy best suited for whirling dervishes. Let it wash over you. It’s hard to write this even as I hear it. It tends to overwhelm everything else in your immediate sphere.
The album ends with a “Gathering of Ancient Tribes” (Notice the initials?). The vocals are powerful (chanting “Into the fire!” at one point), and the band behind them seems to be playing from a mountain temple for all in the valley below to hear. The guitar solo drops from Mount Olympus, gathering cacophony in its wake, until it hits you like an avalanche.
This is one of the most powerful, mind-altering records I’ve heard since, well, Goat’s first album. You aren’t the same after hearing a Goat album. It will bend your brain. Proceed with caution, but by all means – proceed.
MC 900 Foot Jesus (Mark Griffin) was one of the most innovative experimental and hip-hop musicians in the 1990’s. His 1990 album Hell with the Lid Off album shattered conceptions of hip-hop and was a weird, manic masterpiece chronicling madmen, drunks, schizophrenics, and the notion that “Truth is out of style.” He put out a couple more records after that, 1991’s Welcome to My Dream and 1994’s One Step Ahead of the Spider. He retired before releasing a fourth album, citing frustrations with the music industry, but has since come out of retirement and is again playing shows and working on that fourth record.
He’s released, for free, Live in Vienna 1992. It’s a radio station’s recording of a live show there, and it’s outstanding. Griffin and his longtime collaborator, DJ Zero (Patrick Rollins), throw down stunning beats and rhymes of tracks from the first two records.
The album begins with a brief interview with Griffin, in which he says he tries “to put you inside someone’s head who really sees the world in a bizarre way” with his music. This approach is evident throughout all of his songs, which feature bizarre characters and people who believe their worldview is the truth.
“Falling Elevators” opens the set, and the slightly evil bass, beats, and saxophone set the scene right away. “Adventures in Failure” lets DJ Zero cut loose (as does the saxophonist, who sounds like he or she is going for broke), and MC 900 Foot Jesus raps a story about a man so sick of his job and wife that he fakes a kidnapping scheme after he skips work and wrecks his car. DJ Zero scratching the sound of a car screeching to a halt is a stunning lesson to anyone wishing to work the wheels of steel.
“I’m Going Straight to Heaven” again has DJ Zero slinging scratches like a fastball pitcher closing out the ninth inning. Griffin raps through what sounds like a bullhorn microphone. Griffin and his band slow down a bit on “The City Sleeps,” a song about a serial arsonist. There’s more excellent saxophone work throughout it. “Truth Is Out of Style,” Griffin’s first big hit, follows, and DJ Zero’s turntable work is even more impressive on it live. The only blip on the track is when the Austrian recorders cut out a mention of Shirley MacLaine in the lyrics, probably thinking they’d get sued if they didn’t.
The beats on “Killer Inside Me” are killer indeed. MC 900 Foot Jesus raps about a man who pretends to be a simpleton but who is actually a psychopathic killer who strikes after luring his victims into believing he’s harmless. DJ Zero also gets to stretch his scratching muscles more than on the recorded version of the track. He’ll leave you gobsmacked with admiration. “O-Zone” is almost a weird dream with its warped saxophone and droning synths.
The performance ends with “Spaceman,” a suitably trippy song about a bum who gets drunk and high to the point where he sees himself floating away from the Earth. Is he dead? Are aliens kidnapping him? Is he suddenly free of gravity? I don’t know. It’s Griffin’s reality, not ours. Each reality is one’s own truth, and the truth is this live album is worth finding. I got my copy through MC 900 Foot Jesus’ Facebook page, so go there and grab it while you can.
Keep your mind open.
[The updates in your e-mail inbox will be killer if you subscribe.]
Not one to rest on his laurels, Ty Segall has more side projects than a street hustler. Fuzz is one of his loudest and best. Along with Roland Cosio (bass) and Charlie Moothart (guitar), Segall (on vocals and drums instead of his usual guitar) and his pals created an album of metal distortion that was hard to match in 2013 and is still hard to match today.
The band is appropriately named, as the opener, “Earthen Gate,” starts like a bluesy heavy metal ballad but transforms into a heavy chugging fuzzed-out battle hymn. “Sleigh Ride” has, as far as I can tell, nothing to do with Christmas and jingle bells, but everything to do with the band’s love of Cream and Black Sabbath. This love of 1960’s metal bands continues on “What’s in My Head?”, in which Fuzz drifts back and forth between psychedelia and stoner metal.
“HazeMaze” hits hard right out of the gate. It’s like the soundtrack to a battle between giant robots. Seriously, someone needs to put this in the next Pacific Rim movie. “Loose Sutures” is excellent stoner metal. It’s full of reverbed vocals, heavy guitars, and pounding drums that sound like Segall decided to skip a day at the gym and made up for it on his kit.
“Preacher” is Cream mixed with Blue Cheer. “Raise” is Cream if Clapton, Bruce, and Baker said, “Screw it, turn up full volume on everything.” when recording (which, actually, I’m sure they did now and then). The rhythm grooves in it are superb. The album ends with “One,” the longest track on the album at just over six minutes (Fuzz doesn’t mess around.). It’s glorious, hard-hitting controlled instrumental chaos. The mosh pit this must induce is probably batshit crazy.
This record would’ve been in my top 10 of 2013 had I been keeping lists back then. They’ve put out a second record by now, II, so I need to seek it out pronto. You should, too. Seek out both. Get fuzzy.
Keep your mind open.
[I don’t know what’s in your head, but updates are in your e-mail inbox if you subscribe to us.]
My best pal and I used to crank Frank Zappa’s Joe’s Garage a lot in college. It has a lot of rockers, humor, and weird stuff you love from Zappa’s work, but I never realized until I picked up my own copy that it’s a concept album about music being outlawed and Zappa’s masterful skewering of the record industry, commercial radio, religion, government censorship, and sexual repression.
The first song on the record, “Central Scrutinizer,” introduces one of the main characters and narrators of the album / play. Zappa plays the Scrutinizer and the character introduces nearly every track. The Scrutinizer’s job is to enforce laws that don’t exist yet, especially those related to “a horrible force called music.” The album is a presentation by the Scrutinizer to warn us against pursuing a career in such a dangerous thing.
The title track tells the story of Joe and his garage band’s meteoric rise to success and plummet into irrelevancy. It’s a groovy cut that salutes 50’s doo-wop, surf rock, and hard rock. Joe runs afoul of the law for dabbling in grooves, so the Scrutinizer sends him off to church to get his mind right. However, he runs into a lot of fun “Catholic Girls” there and is soon getting a blowjob at the CYO. It’s a gut-buster of a song that also has killer bass guitar throughout it and two switches to lounge-style jams that Zappa’s band pulls off with super slick ease.
Joe’s girlfriend, Mary, becomes a “Crew Slut,” in which Zappa sings about the groupie “way of life.” She joins the crew of another rock group and leaves Joe behind. There’s some fine harmonica playing on this track. The disco sound of “Fembot in a Wet T-shirt” shows that Zappa and his crew could (and did) play anything they damn well wanted. Mary gets back “On the Bus” after winning $50 in the wet T-shirt contest, and we’re treated to a great instrumental guitar solo taken from earlier live recordings in a process called xenochrony. Joe hears about Mary’s infidelity and finds solace in a new girl, Lucille, who gives him a venereal disease, which leads us to “Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?” – a song only Zappa could get away with putting on an album back then, let alone load the song with rock guitars and drums big enough for a concert hall. The following track, “Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up,” is a slow reggae jam as frequent Zappa collaborator Ike Willis sings Joe’s cries for love.
Joe joins the First Church of Appliantology (Yes, Zappa was satirizing Scientology years ahead of everyone else.) in an attempt to shed his earthly desires, only to learn he’s a “latent appliance fetishist.” Joe then heads to a fetish club on “Stick It Out,” where he hooks up with a “Sy Borg” and bursts out in German, and English, “Fuck me, you ugly son of a bitch!” Not only is this a song that will have you laughing throughout it, but it’s also one of the hottest rockers on the whole record. The band has a blast on it and everyone fires on all cylinders. Joe goes too hard on Sy Borg in the next track (while the band plays over eight minutes of weird lounge jazz) and is soon apprehended by the Central Scrutinizer’s thugs.
In prison, Joe is told about “Dong Work for Yuda,” which is perhaps the funkiest song about prison sex you’ve ever heard, and “Keep It Greasy” is a far funkier rocker about the same subject than Tool ever made. The rhythm section is on fire for the whole track.
“Outside Now” has Joe dreaming of playing guitar again to at least mentally escape from prison. The guitar work on it is suitably strange and sorrowful. “He Used to Cut the Grass” is a story of Joe’s woes once he gets out of prison and discovers all the other musicians are gone and the world is a squeaky clean plastic world of consumer goods so he has to retreat once more into his mind. The guitar solo on this is almost ethereal and a perfect reflection of Joe’s melting mind.
“Packard Goose” is, on its surface, a song about Joe’s descent into madness but is also a diatribe against music critics like yours truly. It’s a wild, almost freestyle jazz tune with stunning guitar shredding throughout it. Speaking of amazing guitar work, that’s all of the instrumental “Watermelon in Easter Hay.” It is easily among Zappa’s greatest solos and, according to Zappa himself, the best song on the record. Zappa’s son, Dweezil, has been quoted as saying it’s the best solo his father ever played.
The closer is “Little Green Rosetta,” a song the Central Scrutinizer believes is the best type of music. He (Zappa) freely admits “this is a stupid song,” but it’s a goofy yet fine piece of craftsmanship from him and features nearly everyone who worked in or hung out at Zappa’s home studio back in 1979.
It’s a fun, wild, amazing masterpiece. There was a stage show of it in Los Angeles in 2008, but where’s the Broadway version? We’ve had shows about gay puppets, anthropomorphic cats, goofy Mormons, and even adaptations of Monty Python films, why can’t we have Joe’s Garage: The Musical?
The third stop on my journey through the Cream (Ginger Baker – drums, Jack Bruce – bass and vocals, Eric Clapton – guitar and vocals) catalogue brings me to their double album Wheels of Fire.
The album opens with perhaps their greatest hit, “White Room,” in which Bruce sings about being trapped in a strange place while Baker’s drums try to break him out and Clapton’s guitar wails like someone in a mental asylum. It’s a great way to start a record. Many bands could (and did) learn from it.
Their cover of the blues classic “Sitting on Top of the World” is another fine entry into their list of blues-rock power tracks, and Clapton’s guitars are downright dirty on it. “Passing the Time” floats from rock to calliope-fronted psychedelia. “As You Said” is more tripped-out psychedelia with Bruce’s vocals layered with reverb, his acoustic guitar licks spiced with Arabic influences, and even playing cello on it.
“Pressed Rat and Warthog” brings in trumpet and recorder as Baker sings about an unlikely pair of pals with a weird store and Bruce and Clapton put down heavy riffs.
Everyone had a political statement to make in the 1960’s, and Cream was no exception. “Politician” is a sharp-witted sting on politicians using their position to get laid and ducking responsibility whenever possible (“I’m support the left though I’m leanin’ to the right, but I’m just not there when it’s comin’ to a fight.”). “Those Were the Days” mentions another subject common in 1960’s music – Atlantis. Bruce sings about ancient times and places and how he craves a return to such enlightened times before Clapton unleashes a quick solo that might raise the lost city from the depths.
Their cover of the blues standard “Born Under a Bad Sign” pretty much set the standard for covering the Booker T classic. You can tell they had a good time recording it, and Baker’s groove is so sick it needs penicillin. “Deserted Cities of the Heart” has an excellent guest violin by Felix Pappalardi (who contributes a lot to the album on several tracks and instruments).
The second part of the double album is a live recording from the Fillmore that opens with another one of Cream’s greatest hits – their cover of Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads.” Eric Clapton, as you well know by now, shreds the tune like a crosscut saw. As good as it is, however, it’s really a warm-up for the epic version of “Spoonful” that clocks in at nearly seventeen minutes. “Traintime” has Bruce having a blast on harmonica while Baker keeps a Johnny Cash-worthy beat behind him. Baker then goes bananas on “Toad” – a drum solo over sixteen minutes long.
The live portion of the album is alone worth the purchase price. The psychedelic rock on the studio album is a great bonus.
Keep your mind open.
[We ask the Lord for mercy, and for you to subscribe.]
I once read a YouTube comment on a video of the MC5 (Michael Davis – bass and vocals, Wayne Kramer – guitar, piano, bass, vocals, Fred Smith – guitar, organ, harmonica, vocals, Dennis Thompson – drums, percussion, vocals, Rob Tyner – lead vocals, harmonica, percussion) in concert that said going to one of their shows was akin to an act of defiance. The MC5 embraced a punk rock political ethic before anyone knew what punk rock was, and their angry, wall-flattening sound and blatant references to sex, drugs, and sticking it to the Man were shocking at the time. The Big Bang! The Best of the MC5 is a great collection from Rhino Records that documents the band’s growth from garage rockers to Midwest rock giants who wouldn’t get their full due in other parts of the country until well after they called it quits.
Opening with one of their earliest singles, “I Can Only Give You Everything,” you can hear the band creating the raucous sound that would become their trademark. Wayne Kramer’s guitar riffs influenced everyone from the Smithereens to Nirvana. “Looking at You” is so fuzzy and frenetic that I’m sure Ty Segall plays it every night before he goes to bed. Kramer’s guitars on it are like something from a horror movie score. “I Just Don’t Know” is sweaty, dirty blues with thumping bass from Davis and Kramer’s guitars attacking you from all directions.
The next four tracks are from the band’s debut album, Kick Out the Jams,which was a live recording no less. “Ramblin’ Rose” begins with a testimonial call to arms by a friend of the band, Brother J.C. Crawford (“I wanna hear some revolution out there! Brothers and sisters, the time has come for each and every one of you to decide if you are going to be the problem or you are going to be the solution!”), before the MC5 make you feel like that guy in the chair from the Memorex ad and Kramer (who takes a turn at lead vocals) sings to the rafters. Their biggest hit, “Kick Out the Jams,” follows. It is so powerful that it feels like it might open a rift in space-time and pull you back to Halloween 1968 in Detroit when they recorded it. “Come Together” is a cheeky song about sex in which Tyner pretty much details getting off with his lady. “Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)” is almost relentless as it hits with heavy grooves and chanting vocals.
The next eight tracks are from their second album, Back in the U.S.A. “Tonight” calls for kids to “get together and have a ball” and reveals the band’s love of blues (especially in Davis’ bass). “Teenage Lust” calls to every one of their fans; as does “High School” (“Kids want a little action, kids want a little fun.”), which most likely inspired a good chunk of the Ramones’ catalogue. “Call Me Animal” has some of Thompson’s best drumming. The whole song has a beat you can’t shake. “The American Ruse” is a great example of the MC5’s political leanings (“They told you in school about freedom, but when you try to be free they don’t let ya.”). Tyner’s lyrics are scathing and still hold weight today. “Shakin’ Street” is another salute to American youth, this time with Smith on lead vocals. The title of “The Human Being Lawnmower” made it too risqué for much radio play, which is a shame because it’s a crazy, near-psychedelic freak-out of a tune. The title track to the album is a cover of the Chuck Berry classic. The MC5 worshipped at Berry’s altar, and they do him great homage.
The next five tracks are from High Time, starting with the powerful “Sister Anne” – a song about a tough, foxy nun (and listen to that harmonica solo!). “Baby Won’t Ya” brings a bit of soul to the MC5’s heavy rock as Tyner sings about a familiar subject – wanting sex – and Kramer sizzles on guitar. “Miss X” starts with simple piano chords, but then the guitars stroll into the room like professional hitmen and the song takes on a sinister edge for the next five minutes as Tyner sings a ballad, believe it or not. “Over and Over” is another biting rant not only at politicians, but also at people who only give lip service to revolutionary action. Tyner goes for broke on it, his voice nearly cracking multiple times throughout the track. “Skunk (Sonically Speaking)” brings in a full horn section, adding a wild funk the band was exploring just before they split up for good.
The compilation ends, wisely, with another live track – “Thunder Express.” It’s a great jam with Kramer making it sound easy on guitar and Thompson sounds like he’s having a ball behind his kit.
The MC5 were up for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, and they will (and damn well should) get in one of these years. They still influence bands to this day, their live performances couldn’t be touched, and finding bands that match their fury today is difficult. They made a big bang in the 1970’s, and it still resonates.
Keep your mind open.
[Get updates sent over and over to your e-mail inbox by subscribing to us.]
Spinning off the massive critical and commercial success of their now-classic album OK Computer, Radiohead released the Airbag / How Am I Driving? EP in the United States as a sort of “mega-single” when “Airbag” was a hit single. It contained not only the title track, but also six tracks that had previously been unreleased.
“Airbag” is instantly recognizable with its fuzzy guitars, slightly distorted beats, and Thom Yorke singing about the aftermath of a car wreck (which is probably an allegory for some sort of enlightenment experience). “Pearly” has crisp, almost toy box guitar layered over heavy shoegaze riffs. “Meeting in the Aisle” is instrumental music for a grocery store on a space station.
If that track is meant for a space station grocery store, then “A Reminder” is meant for the station’s jazz lounge. Mellow keyboards mix with machinery sounds, ambient crowd noise, and Yorke’s mysterious vocals. “Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2)” is a quirky love song, as is “Melatonin.” “Palo Alto” is an angry diatribe against suburbia, the rat race, and comfortable complacency. Loud guitars smack you awake during the chorus while the verses are quieter affairs with more weird mechanical sounds lurking in the background.
OK Computer was an album about human beings becoming more and more alienated from each other as technology improved. This EP is like an epilogue to that record. It’s a short mix of songs that feature a lot of distortion, blips, bleeps, and paranoia. Get it if you want the bookend to one of Radiohead’s classic records.
Keep your mind open.
[How am I driving? Let me know by subscribing or leaving a comment.]
Continuing with my journey through the Cream (Ginger Baker – drums and vocals, Jack Bruce – bass, harmonica, and vocals, Eric Clapton – guitar and vocals) catalogue, I’ve arrived at their second album, Disraeli Gears.
The album starts off with two of their biggest hits – “Strange Brew” and “Sunshine of Your Love.” Both are stoner rock classics. “Strange Brew” has Clapton unleashing blues licks right away and is pretty much about a witch giving him a love potion. It might also be about getting drunk on something you can’t identify. “Sunshine of Your Love” has epic shredding by Clapton and heavy rhythms by Baker and Bruce that influenced hundreds of bands after them.
“World of Pain” layers on the reverb as Clapton and Bruce sing about a gray tree and Baker puts down beats that range from simple time keeping to wild jazz. “Dance the Night Away” is shimmering psych-rock with Clapton’s guitar sounding like it’s a transmission from another dimension. “Blue Condition” is a slow, trippy bit of psych-rock, and “Tales of Brave Ulysses” is one of those great Cream tracks that you tend to forget they wrote. You instantly remember how great it is when you hear it. The band lays down tracks as heavy as the mythological hero’s exploits.
“Swlabr” is even heavier stoner-psych. Clapton chugs out chords that also shred, Bruce sings for the back row, and Baker beats his kit half to death. “We’re Going Wrong” has more trippy blues-psych guitar from Clapton (who, as you can guess by now, is stretching out and trying whatever he wants on the record). Clapton takes over lead vocals on “Outside Woman Blues,” which could be a classic blues track but Cream makes it a heavy stoner rock tune instead, and Clapton has a scorching solo on it while Bruce lays a bass line heavier than a steam engine. “Take It Back” is another track with heavy blues influences, and I won’t say anything about “Mother’s Lament.” I don’t want to spoil it if you haven’t heard it.
Disraeli Gears showed Cream was firing on all cylinders. Their next album included a second record of live tracks, one of which is now legendary (but aren’t they all, really?).
