The cover of
Eric Clapton
's 2002 live album
One More Car, One More Rider
-- no less than the sixth live album in his solo career -- suggests the problems in the record. It's designed to look a classic
blues
album sleeve or poster, but it's self-conscious and affected, the work of somebody that knows the form but not the substance of the
. Certainly that accusation can't be reasonably leveled at
Clapton
who, after all, has proved throughout his career that he knows the substance of the
, but ever since his canonization to the MOR mainstream with 1992's
Unplugged
, there's a sinking feeling that
EC
dabbles in the
instead of lives there. Sure, he had a fierce testimonial to his favorite music with
From the Cradle
, but
arrives nearly a decade later, and the difference is stunning. Though he goes through the motions of playing the
-- a cutting version of the perennial
"Key to the Highway,"
"Hoochie Coochie Man,"
"Goin' Down Slow,"
among others here -- the heart of this album is closer to the
NPR
instrumental jam of
"Reptile"
than
. This is mannered, "classy" playing which sounds perfectly fine but is never interesting, particularly since the song selection favors either warhorses or recent hits. In short, it's a record for those that like the idea of
more than his music. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine