March 1998 - Pilgrim ***

The first album of new material after a four-year gap, during which Clapton spent time experimenting with jazzy electronica as part of TDF. Some of that feel carries over here, with the help of hot producer Simon Climie.

One view of this album is that Eric is continuing to experiment with new styles, broaden his list of influences, and bring hot new artists into his creative process. Another view is that the electronic sound is harsh and soulless, and there is a lot of dead time in the songs, making much of the album too easy to ignore. I'll confess that my opinion of the album started out as the latter, and has improved since. It's still not one of my favorites, though.

Clapton is more involved in the songwriting than he has ever been. This album is almost completely filled with Clapton compositions. "Born In Time" by Bob Dylan and the blues classic "Goin' Down Slow" are the only covers on the album. The best of the originals, "My Father's Eyes" and "Circus", had made their debut six years earlier at the Unplugged show, but were unreleased until now. "Sick And Tired", a song Clapton describes as a parody, caused some controversy for its depiction of violence against women.