Any listener who claims that they ever expected anything which sounds like Old Sock from Eric Clapton is a liar. Granted, the guitarist has sampled a wide variety of sounds and styles over the span of his fifty-year career; he's been a blues breaking inspiration, a Yardbird, a guitar god, a hot-ticket AM pop phenom (see the period of time which yielded Slowhand, No Reason To Cry and Backless), a blues revivalist (his Unplugged set still ranks as one of the best in MTV history) and all-around rock institution (through it all) but, from note one of “Further On Down The Road” which opens this record, no one outside of those who have joined Clapton in a late-night, booze-fueled jam session has heard the guitarist as he sounds here, on his twentieth solo album.
Before you get nervous, calling Old Sock “boozy” isn't meant to imply that Clapton has fallen off the wagon, more to explain the the spirit (no pun intended) of this album; here, Clapton really lets his hair down, opens his mind and starts experimenting with his sound and style with an almost reckless abandon. There are no rules on Old Sock, the only guiding principle is that anything goes.
Readers familiar with Clapton's catalogue are right to be cautiously excited at what such an endorsement could mean. Over the duration of the guitarist's fifty-year career, Eric Clapton has taken several ill-advised turns and hasn't necessarily redeemed them. Some listeners will certainly recall some of those turns as Old Sock opens with “Further On Down The Road” and oozes some reggae flavor more reminiscent of Willie Nelson's Countryman album than “I Shot The Sheriff.” It's understandable that this is the sort of song that could appear on a set of cover songs by Eric Clapton, but that doesn't mean it should be the opening track; the sound is just too soft and can easily leave listeners with the impression that Eric Clapton might be more “Up The Creek” than “Down The Road” here.
Happily, while the start of Old Sock is far from strong, the album starts to smell a lot better as it progresses – even if the awesome guitar chops and riffs of Clapton's best years are still kept at a minimum. In the case of particular standout songs “Gotta Get Over,” “Born To Lose,” “Still Got The Blues” and “Goodnight Irene,” Clapton hits on a style that does each song justice and really flies with them; rather than crashing and burning as he does elsewhere (like on “Angel” where Clapton croaks out lines about cutting like a knife, but just sounds like a creepy old man). As a result, Old Sock turns out to be as much a failure as it is a success, so fans and other interested parties are advised to tread lightly the first time through Old Sock and take notes for which songs best suit their taste for future programming and play. That might sound crass or harsh, but it isn't meant to; Old Sock's great moments are just that – they're great – but a producer with a stronger hand would have been useful to help sort the wheat from the chaff here.
Artist:
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Album:
Old Sock will be released on March 12, 2013 by Bushbranch/Surfdog. Pre-order it here on Amazon .
