Eric Clapton
Artist: Eric Clapton
Community Score: 8.00

Eric Clapton's eponymous solo debut was recorded after he completed a tour with Delaney & Bonnie. Clapton used the core of the duo's backing band and co-wrote the majority of the songs with Delaney Bramlett -- accordingly, Eric Clapton sounds more laid-back and straightforward than any of the guitarist's previous recordings. There are still... Read More

Soul of a Man: Al Kooper Live
Artist: Al Kooper

A gift from heaven is the only adequate way of describing this superb double-CD set, which comes in a slip-case with a neat little booklet. It is the definitive Al Kooper solo project, and a career reconsideration and retrospective, but it's also damn close to definitive as a document of the Blues Project and the original Blood, Sweat & Tears as... Read More

Janis
Artist: Janis Joplin

This three-CD box set is the most thorough and valuable retrospective of Janis Joplin's career. Besides including all of her most essential recordings with and without Big Brother & the Holding Company, this 49-song package features quite a few enticing rarities; 18 of the tracks were previously unissued. These include a 1962 home recording of... Read More

Pearl
Artist: Janis Joplin & The Full Tilt Boogie Band
Community Score: 9.58

Janis Joplin's second masterpiece (after Cheap Thrills), Pearl was designed as a showcase for her powerhouse vocals, stripping down the arrangements that had often previously cluttered her music or threatened to drown her out. Thanks also to a more consistent set of songs, the results are magnificent -- given room to breathe, Joplin's trademark... Read More

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
Artist: Derek & the Dominos
Community Score: 7.38

Wishing to escape the superstar expectations that sank Blind Faith before it was launched, Eric Clapton retreated with several sidemen from Delaney & Bonnie to record the material that would form Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. From these meager beginnings grew his greatest album. Duane Allman joined the band shortly after recording began,... Read More

The Slider - BONUS TRACKS
Artist: T. Rex
Community Score: 8.27

Buoyed by two U.K. number one singles in "Telegram Sam" and "Metal Guru," The Slider became T. Rex's most popular record on both sides of the Atlantic, despite the fact that it produced no hits in the U.S. The Slider essentially replicates all the virtues of Electric Warrior, crammed with effortless hooks and trashy fun. All of Bolan's... Read More

Mott
Artist: Mott the Hoople
Community Score: 7.25

All the Young Dudes actually brought Mott the Hoople success, but you wouldn't know that from its sequel, Mott. Ian Hunter's songs are a set of road tales fraught with exhaustion, disillusionment, and dashed dreams, all told with a wry sense of humor so evident on Mott's earlier work. So, this is no ordinary road album, where a band whines about... Read More

Naked Songs
Artist: Al Kooper
Community Score: 9.80

Naked Songs represents the other end of Al Kooper's early career from I Stand Alone. Where that first album was recorded very gradually at the outset of his solo career, soon after exiting Blood, Sweat & Tears, Naked Songs was a much more cohesive work (cut in New York and Georgia) from the end of his stay at Columbia Records. Ironically, it was... Read More

Pearl/Cheap Thrills
Artist: Janis Joplin

Columbia reissued two of Janis Joplin's two most popular albums, Pearl and Cheap Thrills, as a double-LP set in the late '70s. This isn't necessarily a bad way to acquire this music, but the packaging and fidelity on this set are fairly shoddy. Most fans will be better served by the original vinyl or CD editions. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All... Read More

Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits - BONUS TRACKS
Artist: Janis Joplin
Community Score: 4.50

A solid, if skimpy, ten-track best-of that gathers the most important songs from Janis Joplin's solo career, as well as her stint with Big Brother & the Holding Company. The compilation 18 Essential Songs offers a wider selection, but does not include the original version of "Me and Bobby McGee," which makes Greatest Hits the better purchase for... Read More

Hendrix in the West - 1972
Artist: Jimi Hendrix

Hendrix in the West is a collection of extremely good live Hendrix performances between 1968-1970. Three different concerts are sampled on this 1972 Polydor/Reprise release, one of the few official live Hendrix releases following his death. Standouts include "Red House" and "Voodoo Chile" from the San Diego Sports Arena, a great rendition of... Read More

The Cry of Love
Artist: Jimi Hendrix
Community Score: 10.00

This was the first of the posthumous releases in the Jimi Hendrix catalog and probably the best as it collected most of the studio tracks that were either completed or very near completion before Hendrix died. Some of these tunes, like "Angel" and "Ezy Rider," have become well-known pieces in the Hendrix canon, but they sit alongside... Read More

The Collection
Artist: Janis Joplin

For the second time, Sony issued the three best albums in Janis Joplin's catalog -- I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama, Pearl, and Big Brother & the Holding Company's Cheap Thrills -- in a slipcased three-CD box; the difference is that this latter package contains the remastered versions of those three albums, which were released individually... Read More