Its simply mind boggling how many people rate this release as quality material. This CD simply is ill suited to Eric's guitar based bluesy style. Eric's guitar has no power and many times it is barely even heard from. Don't get me wrong, Eric Clapton has recorded many soft sounding gems such as Let It Grow, Wonderful Tonight, Lay Down Sally, and Believe In Life from his latest release. However none of the songs on Pilgrim even come close to his best work. The major problem with this album is the over-reliance on drum machines and synthesizers. Do you realize that eleven of the fourteen tracks have no live drums? Also eight of the fourteen tracks rely on a stringed orchestra background. I do not think Eric Clapton recorded eight tracks with strings in a studio on all his other recordings combined. Combine all this with a hip hop beat from track to track and the result is just plain bad! Almost to the point of taking a Sirloin Steak and covering it with Chocolate Yogurt! I could understand if Eric Clapton wanted to recorded a couple of hip-hop/dance oriented tracks on a record. That would be tolerable as long as Eric's signature guitar sound was still front and center. However, Eric's blues roots are mostly smothered here.Eric's style sounds best in a raw environment with a few mellow tracks mixed in for stylistic diversity. Circus and the cover of Born In Time are pretty good songs and River of Tears and She's Gone have decent structures, but the rest just represents Eric so poorly. Gosh, the version of Going Down Slow is butchered beyond the imagination. I did see Eric Clapton in concert and in a live setting with live instruments, the Pilgrim songs are soooo much better. Heck River of Tears was even a concert highlight with some scorching guitar solos and strong drumming. However, the music quality of this release is still substandard. Please Eric....you do not have to resort to appeasing the masses of this artificial style of music. Be your own man and record the music that comes from your soul.

When I had to give this album a rating, I almost gave it a subjective four stars. I thought, if every song on the album was perfect, I'd give it five stars ... But then something struck me. This album is so radically different, so truly new, that it deserves a five star rating. How many artists have ever been able to reinvent themselves as successfully as Eric Clapton? Very, very few. And I'm not judging his success by the album's rating on the charts, or how much money he'll make off of it. Eric's career is so well established that it's written in the stars. I'm judging his success by the songs and workmanship on the album itself. His voice has grown to fit him, and his vocal range is astounding, especially after going back and listening to his early vocal work with The Bluesbreakers, Cream, Derek and the Dominoes and Blind Faith. Yes, his guitar work is subtle on this album, but subtle like the brush strokes of Michelangelo on the Sistine Ceiling. Volume ! isn't everything, sometimes softness can be more powerful. "River of Tears" is a song for anyone who has ever suffered a loss. Go someplace quiet and just listen to it. It will wash over you like a gentle hand, wiping your pain away. And that's what this album is really all about. Clapton discusses it in the Pilgrim tour book, how most of the songs were inspired by a recent love he lost. Music, to Mr. Clapton, is a means of healing. "Circus", a song he wrote about his son Conor, proves that Eric is still healing from the loss of his son, and probably always will be. But there are high volume songs on this album, too. "Sick and Tired", a Clapton-penned blues rocker is an electrified tribute to the Texas Blues of Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Clapton's playing on this one is absolutely jubilant. And "She's Gone" is pure Clapton dynamite. Just listen to it. Basically, Eric took a chance and laid it all out for this album. He t! urned a page, and tried a new musical direction. His sound! is still there, but it has somewhere to go other than backwards. And though the songs are heavy and often sad, they're ultimately an exercise in moving on. Eric Clapton has had the blues, but he's making music about them. That's what it's all about.

You either love it or you hate it. I LOVE it! Perhaps it is the fact that this is such a departure in style from anything else Eric Clapton has ever done. He brings his blues guitar background to a melodic electronic mix and in my opinion, created a masterpiece. Forget the fast forward button. It is rare that you have an "non-compliation" album where 13 out of the 14 songs are great. Pilgrim delivers.

This music is banal, uninspired, boring, monotonous and just sucks the soul out of the living. The final cut, Inside of Me, contains an almost subliminal message of the most trite kind. All things considered, if Utopia is closer to us than anyone can imagine, then it sucks. If this is applied science and centralization, then Clapton has become a zombie going through the motions. This album should be blown to smithereens.

This is the worst album from eric crapton.I didn`t think eric could go bee-gees on us but he did.This is some disco danny stuff.I`m surprised eric isn`t wearing his polyester pants on the cover of this lemmon.Next eric will cover,how deep is your love or night fever.Disco down eric!