Clapton (2010 album)

Background

The album is Clapton's first studio album in four years following his duet with J.J. Cale in The Road to Escondido (2006), and is made up of a mix of new material and cover songs. Clapton has played tracks off this album such as "Rocking Chair" and "When Somebody Thinks You're Wonderful" live on tour. Clapton has said, "This album wasn’t what it was intended to be at all. It's actually better than it was meant to be because, in a way, I just let it happen."

Chart performance

Clapton debuted at number seven on the UK Albums Chart, his highest charting album on the chart since Reptile from 2001. In the United States it entered the Billboard 200 at number six, selling 47,000 copies in its first week on the chart. The album reached top five positions in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Critical reception

According to review aggregator Metacritic, Clapton received an average of 72 out of 100 indicating generally favourable reviews from music critics, based on ten critiques. In his review of Clapton for Allmusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that "there's no record quite like Clapton in Eric Clapton's catalog," and goes on to say that the album "flows easy, the blues never hitting too hard, the New Orleans jazz never getting too woozy, the standards never too sleepy, the sounds subtly shifting but changing all the same." In David Fricke's review for rollingstone.com he called Clapton, "a serenely masterful engagement with roots – the guitarist co-wrote just one original – that is all over the place in repertoire yet devoutly grounded in its roaming. Irving Berlin's "How Deep Is the Ocean" comes with an earnest, sandy Clapton vocal and lighthouse beams of trumpet by Wynton Marsalis. Little Walter's "Can't Hold Out Much Longer" has the crusty flair of Clapton's 1965 and '66 recordings with John Mayall. A pair of Fats Waller romps are decked out in New Orleans brass and pianos, one of them played by Allen Toussaint."

Grammy Awards

The track Run Back to Your Side was nominated for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, held on 13 February 2011.

Track listing

1. "Travelin' Alone" (Lil' Son Jackson) – 3:56
2. "Rocking Chair" (Hoagy Carmichael) – 4:04
3. "River Runs Deep" (J.J. Cale) – 5:52
4. "Judgement Day" (Snooky Pryor) – 3:13
5. "How Deep Is the Ocean" (Irving Berlin) – 5:29
6. "My Very Good Friend the Milkman" (Lyrics: Johnny Burke, Music: Harold Spina) – 3:20
7. "Can't Hold Out Much Longer" (Walter Jacobs) – 4:08
8. "That's No Way to Get Along" (Robert Wilkins) – 6:07
9. "Everything Will Be Alright" (Cale) – 3:51
10. "Diamonds Made from Rain" (Doyle Bramhall II, Nikka Costa, Justin Stanley) – 4:22
11. "When Somebody Thinks You're Wonderful" (Harry M. Woods) – 2:51
12. "Hard Times Blues" (Lane Hardin) – 3:45
13. "Run Back to Your Side" (Bramhall, Eric Clapton) – 5:17
14. "Autumn Leaves" (Joseph Kosma, Johnny Mercer, Jacques Prévert) – 5:40

15. "You Better Watch Yourself"

15. "Take a Little Walk with Me"

15. "I Was Fooled"

15. "Midnight Hour Blues"

Personnel