10 Psychedelic Rock Albums You Need To Know
4. Disraeli Gears - Cream (1967)
Although Disraeli Gears was only released a year after Cream's debut record Fresh Cream, it was a marked shift from the previous sound the band had been playing with. Still heavily inspired by the blues, Eric Clapton's playing sounds far more his own. It's clear he was still heavily inspired by the blues at this point but he wasn't leaning on certain tropes as obviously on this record.
The tracks are considerably more punchy, there's not as many free flowing jam moments as their first record, which isn't to say Clapton doesn't rip the fretboard apart at times. The sound is certainly more experimental than what they had done previously, but the compositions aren't endlessly long improvisational pieces.
Strange Brew was a great number to start the record with: it perfectly exhibited this new sound, making it clear the band had figured a certain vibe before laying down the tracks. The finished result was something that sounded like an extremely honed and fine tuned form of psychedelic rock.
It's a pretty concise album for a genre of music that tends to lend itself to long-winded and at times overly self-indulgent forays into the soundscape.