After the guest star-drenched
No Reason to Cry failed to make much of an impact commercially, Eric Clapton returned to using his own band for
Slowhand. The difference is substantial -- where
No Reason to Cry struggled hard to find the right tone,
Slowhand opens with the relaxed, bluesy shuffle of
J.J. Cale's "Cocaine" and sustains it throughout the course of the album. Alternating between straight blues ("Mean Old Frisco"), country ("Lay Down Sally"), mainstream rock ("Cocaine," "The Core"), and pop ("Wonderful Tonight"),
Slowhand doesn't sound schizophrenic because of the band's grasp of the material. This is laid-back virtuosity -- although Clapton and his band are never flashy, their playing is masterful and assured. That assurance and the album's eclectic material make
Slowhand rank with
461 Ocean Boulevard as Eric Clapton's best albums. [Somehow
Slowhand missed the wave of Eric Clapton Deluxe Editions in the early 2000s, so it was ripe for picking when Super Deluxe Editions became the thing in the early 2010s. And so we have the Super Deluxe 35th Anniversary Edition of Eric Clapton's 1977 album
Slowhand, a perfectly likable album -- by most measures one of Clapton's best -- ballooned to an absurd four CDs, single DVD, and vinyl LP, complete with the standard in-depth book, publicity stills, replicas of tour programs, and other tchotchkes. The first CD is a remastered version of the original album expanded by four songs ("Looking at the Rain," "Alberta," "Greyhound Bus," "Stars, Strays and Ashtrays") and the other two CDs are devoted to a concert at the Hammersmith Odeon from April 27, 1977, performed just days before the album's recording; for the standard-issue Deluxe Edition, this concert is excerpted for a bonus disc attached to the expanded edition of the album. Then, there's the standard issue of
Slowhand -- no bonus tracks, just the original nine songs -- presented in 5.1 DVD-Audio, and the album is once again heard as a vinyl LP. Certainly, there are several hardcore fans of
Slowhand who will find all this worthwhile, but for most Clapton devotees, this is overkill. All the essential material is on that double-disc Deluxe Edition; the stuff that makes it Super is fluff.]
![Slowhand [Super Deluxe Edition Box Set]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0600753407257_p0_v1_s550x406.jpg)
![Slowhand [Super Deluxe Edition Box Set]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0600753407257_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg)
![Slowhand [Super Deluxe Edition Box Set]](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v7.18.7)
![Title: Forever Man [3 CD]](https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0093624927891_p0_v2_s90x140.jpg)
