Eric Clapton - From The Cradle

From the Cradle has prompted a wide range of critical response. Many questioned the title itself as Clapton learned the blues formula from records later in life and certainly was not exposed to Black culture "from the cradle". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic feels that the album is almost perfect and that the only thing bad about the album is Clapton's singing, which merely imitates the original recordings and sometimes can't pull it off. Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly felt that the recordings were "flawless" but were rather boring, especially when compared to the excitement of Cream's live version of "Spoonful". The Music Box's John Metzger felt that Clapton's appearance on Saturday Night Live to promote the album was more powerful than From the Cradle and that the album had nothing that hadn't been done before on it. Robert Christgau compared Eric Clapton's work on the album to Son Seals and Otis Rush, saying that Clapton played better than the former, but sang worse than the latter and felt that "Motherless Child" and "Blues Before Sunrise" were stand-out tracks on the album.

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