Eric Clapton Shows Durability With ‘I Still Do’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

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There are multiple selling points for Eric Clapton’s twenty-third studio record I Still Do. The project finds him reunited with the producer of 1977’s mega-successful album Slowhand. Artist Peter Blake, who oversaw the cover for the Beatles Sgt. Pepper,  rendered the cover painting of EC. And the enigmatic presence of Angelo Mysterioso, actually the late Beatle George Harrison, graces “I Will Be There,” further encouraging public discussion of the title. Centered largely on blues numbers, there is more spirit on these dozen tracks than most of those generally desultory numbers that comprise 2013’s Old Sock, but the workmanlike approach throughout most of I Still Do belies the testament to creative inspiration in its title-song.

Still, it opens promisingly enough with “Alabama Woman Blues” featuring fluid, molten guitars flow around which piano, organ and accordion color the sound and authenticate it as true blues. The cryptically titled “Spiral” is only slightly less genuine, Slowhand’s simple and passionate guitar fills approaching a profundity  the words cannot. Skip James’ “Cypress Grove” is squarely within Clapton’s roots (not surprisingly he’s the writer of “I’m So Glad” off Fresh Cream), as is the homage to the archetypal guitar hero’s own idol Robert Johnson, “Stones in My Passway.” On both numbers, Clapton displays as much relish in his vocals as in the tempered abandon in his guitar playing, suggesting this record might well have been a well-crafted sequel to 1994’s From the Cradle with more focus on similar material.

But, in contrast to the clarity of the cover painting, this mix of originals and cover material muddies the musical portrait of Eric Clapton as he moves past his seventieth birthday.. The jaunty feel is unmistakable on Bob Dylan’s “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine,” but the arrangement is overly busy, perhaps a direct result of EC’s long-time studio collaborator Simon Climie wielding as much or more influence as Johns. And while acoustic guitar and double bass accompaniment accentuate the warm and affectionate sentiment of “Little Man, You’ve Had a Busy Day,” that track isn’t all that far removed from the lachrymose torch-song likes of “I’ll Be Seeing You” and “I’ll Be There,” the bane of EC’s  most recent releases like 2010’s Clapton.

It is well to remember the similarly sentimental, but distinctly more personal likes of “Wonderful Tonight” formed some of basis for the success for Slowhand, but not all of it: the riffing of J.J. Cale’s “Cocaine” was an equal, if not greater attraction.  Here, the laid-back grace of that same songwriter’s “Somebody’s Knockin’” is derived from a twelve-bar structure, a style which, if it were more prevalent within the song selection, might’ve rendered I Still Do as a more resounding  personal statement from Eric Clapton.