Polydor / Pgd
2004
Disraeli Gears (Deluxe Editon)
About This Album
Intense Cream fans and collectors might be disappointed in the two-CD deluxe edition of Disraeli Gears for offering little in the way of previously unreleased material. There is a lot of extra stuff here, mind you, which makes it a nice expansion of the group's best and most focused album. There's the original album in both stereo and mono; two outtakes of "Lawdy Mama" and five additional demos (all seven of which previously appeared on the Those Were the Days box set); and nine 1967-1968 BBC recordings from the Disraeli Gears era (all of which appear on the BBC Sessions compilation). The only wholly previously unavailable item is an alternate version of "Blue Condition" with Eric Clapton on lead vocal, in both stereo and mono, which actually qualifies as about the least interesting track on the set. And why, pray tell, is the BBC version of "Sunshine of Your Love" -- far and away the album's most popular song -- present on BBC Sessions, but not included here? That minor complaint aside, this is a fine listen, the main album enduring as the peak of Cream's artistry, as the group blended its original blues-rock with psychedelic pop on well-written songs with a mystical tinge.
Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 5,7,9,13,14,15,16,17 and 18)

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Disc 2 (try tracks 13 and 17)

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