From The Cradle
| From the Cradle | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Eric Clapton | ||||
| Released | 13 September 1994 | |||
| Recorded | 1994, Olympic Studios, Barnes, London | |||
| Genre | Blues, electric blues, British blues, soul blues | |||
| Length | 60:10 | |||
| Label | Duck / Warner Bros. | |||
| Producer | Eric Clapton, Russ Titelman | |||
| Eric Clapton chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Chicago Tribune |  |
| Entertainment Weekly | B− |
| Los Angeles Times | |
| The Music Box | |
| People | (Positive) |
| Robert Christgau |  |
From the Cradle is a 1994 album by Eric Clapton released on 13 September by Warner Bros. Records. It is a blues cover album. The album was Clapton's follow-up to his successful 1992 live album, Unplugged.
Although he had long been associated with the blues, From the Cradle was Clapton's first attempt at an all-blues album. He would subsequently record Riding with the King with B. B. King; a tribute to Robert Johnson, Me and Mr. Johnson; and a collaboration with J. J. Cale, The Road to Escondido.
From the Cradle has prompted a wide range of critical response. Many questioned the title itself as Clapton learned the blues formula from records later in life and certainly was not exposed to Black culture "from the cradle", although the title likely refers to the saying "from the cradle to the grave". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic feels that the album is almost perfect and that the only thing bad about the album is Clapton's singing, which merely imitates the original recordings and sometimes can't pull it off. Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly felt that the recordings were "flawless" but were rather boring, especially when compared to the excitement of Cream's live version of "Spoonful".The Music Box's John Metzger felt that Clapton's appearance on Saturday Night Live to promote the album was more powerful than From the Cradle and that the album had nothing that hadn't been done before on it.Robert Christgau compared Eric Clapton's work on the album to Son Seals and Otis Rush, saying that Clapton played better than the former, but sang worse than the latter and felt that "Motherless Child" and "Blues Before Sunrise" were stand-out tracks on the album.
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