Fresh Cream
represents so many different firsts, it's difficult to keep count.
Cream
, of course, was the first supergroup, but their first album not only gave birth to the power trio, it also was instrumental in the birth of
heavy metal
and the birth of jam
rock
. That's a lot of weight for one record and, like a lot of pioneering records,
doesn't seem quite as mighty as what would come later, both from the group and its acolytes. In retrospect, the moments on the LP that are a bit unformed -- in particular, the halting
waltz
of
"Dreaming"
never achieves the sweet ethereal atmosphere it aspires to -- stand out more than the innovations, which have been so thoroughly assimilated into the vocabulary of
rock & roll
, but
was a remarkable shift forward in
upon its 1966 release and it remains quite potent. Certainly at this early stage the trio was still grounded heavily in
blues
, only fitting given guitarist
Eric Clapton
's stint in
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers
, which is where he first played with bassist
Jack Bruce
never had the purist bent of
Mayall
, and not just because they dabbled heavily in
psychedelia
. The rhythm section of
Bruce
and
Ginger Baker
had a distinct jazzy bent to their beat; this isn't hard and pure, it's spongy and elastic, giving the musicians plenty of room to roam. This fluidity is most apparent on the
covers that take up nearly half the record, especially on
"Spoonful,"
where the swirling instrumental interplay, echo, fuzz tones, and overwhelming volume constitute true
psychedelic
music, and also points strongly toward the guitar worship of
. Almost all the second side of
is devoted to this, closing with
Baker
's showcase
"Toad,"
but for as hard and restless as this half of the album is, there is some lightness on the first portion of the record where
reveals himself as an inventive
pop
songwriter with the tense, colorful
"N.S.U."
and the hook- and harmony-laden
"I Feel Free."
shows as much force and mastery on these tighter, poppier tunes as they do on the free-flowing jams, yet they show a clear bias toward the long-form
numbers, which makes sense: they formed to be able to pursue this freedom, which they do so without restraint. If at times that does make the album indulgent or lopsided, this is nevertheless where
was feeling their way forward, creating their heavy
jazz
-
and, in the process, opening the door to all kinds of serious
music that may have happened without
, but it just would not have happened in the same fashion as it did with this record as precedent. [
was re-released on LP in 2015.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine