Eric Clapton brings it back to the basics

Eric Clapton

Pilgrim

Warner Brothers

Every couple of albums, Eric Clapton manages to pleasantly surprise us. His work has spanned many genres, from being the core of one of the only real rock bands, to the almost-experimental instrumental music he did for the movie Rush, to his all-blues album From the Cradle. In between these albums lay the familiar solo guitar-pop music that Clapton is perhaps best known for. Unfortunately, his new album, Pilgrim, is no surprise.

This is not to say that there are no surprises on the album, only that the album's style is the familiar Clapton, back from his sabbatical to what seems to be his most comfortable seat: soft music with heavy guitar and weird lyrics. The surprises that are on this album include the nice if not a bit excessive use of back-up singers, some interesting drum-machine rhythms, and some very poorly written instrumental tracks.

Overall, if you like Eric Clapton, you'll like this album. In fact, your favorite tracks would probably be the released single "My Father's Eyes," "Pilgrim," and "One Change." If you liked his blues album as well, you'll enjoy "Fall Like Rain", and "Sick and Tired." If you're sitting somewhere and the album is playing in the background, you probably won't take much notice of anything, except maybe "Circus," which is mellow, acoustic, and perhaps the best track on the album. "Needs His Woman" is nice, too.

The problem with Clapton is his misunderstanding of what his music is. Nobody can dispute the fact that the man is a quality player of guitar. Not many would try and say he can't write a song, for everybody probably has at least one song of his they like. Rather, when trying to figure out exactly what it is about Clapton's music that's just a little bit annoying, one would find comfort in the idea that perhaps Clapton is just too good for pop music.

What attracts us to pop music is its hook, that catchy chorus we can't get out of our head. Pop music is generally not quality music, definitely not original, and for the most part an effort towards a cool image rather than good sounds. This is where Clapton falters. He is a quality musician who insists on working within a mediocre genre. One suspects that he is privy to the news about pop music, thus tries things with his music to distinguish himself, to separate himself from the Better Than Ezras of the industry. But while we notice these attempts, we notice them in vain, for they make his songs rigid, a little bit odd, and hard to lock on to.

Perhaps the best indication that Clapton is trying to stray from the pop music norms while staying in the pop music genre is this album's lack of image. The album art looks like a nixed "Quantum Leap" promo, and the jacket contains, instead of lyrics, cheesy, new-age-ish pictures of lightening, moons, and, ooh, eyes.

Still, there are good moments on Pilgrim that will be appreciated by hard-core Clapton fans. For the rest of us, however, Pilgrim is perhaps to difficult to really get into to be worth owning.