Customer Reviews

Slowhand: 35th Anniversary (Super Deluxe Edition Box Set) [3 CD + DVD + LP]

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The reviews regarding Slowhand are all ancient. The slate should be
clean as it was released only....today! December 18th. I got a great
deal on this set. I'm a happy customer. Thanks Amazon.....The deluxe
set is a real groove and it costs a few....but it may well be collector
material. The price might drop, time will tell. The first song, "Cocaine"
sets the mood, if you get the joke, before heading into "Wonderful Tonight"...
The single disc remaster is a real good price. I bought 2 copies! I think
I'll return with a late, sonics UPDATE.....The sound is absolute....they
got it right. This product, whether you buy the single disc or the "production"
you are getting the best this has ever sounded. On first listen, I'm a believer.
December 25th 2012.....BE CAREFUL when pulling out the discs and booklet.
They are not independent of the slipcase. They are all attached. Pull out
gently and open like the pages of a book.....swing them from right to left.

Je suis un grand fan d'Éric Claprton, en fait je collectionne tout ce que je peux trouver sur lui.
Ce coffret est très bien fait et très complet. Tout fan de Clapton devrait l'avoir.

Wonderful re-release!!!! Heavy vinyl print of LP plus disc w/ unreleased tracks. Clear concert with great energy in 2 discs. Good booklet & program reprints. Even the box packaing is superb-tweed case of a Fender Strat that Clapton is famous for.

This is a great set for any Eric Clapton fan - Slowhand is one of "the" albums, and the quality of content on the CDs and DVD is high - not to mention that it comes with the newly remastered vinyl. However the quality of the content is offset by the terrible packaging. Sleeves slide out of the outer box, but they remain attached to the casing and flip like a book. The first time I opened it and tried to flip to the "page" with the album on it, the booklet ripped apart. I ended up tearing the booklet packaging out of the outer box, trimming the sleeves so that I could slide each individual sleeve into the box without anything sticking out. This is probably the way it should have been designed.

This album just doesn't work for me.
I have almost all of Eric Clapton's albums, the good ones, the great ones and the mediocre ones, and everybody but me seems to count this one among the great ones.

I've had it for fifteen years or something like that, and it absolutely refuses to grow on me. Sure, it's got "Lay Down Sally", "Wonderful Tonight", and the lesser-known but quite charming "May You Never". But the rest is not just filler, it's incredibly dull filler, with no hooks, no groove, nothing! Even Clapton's takes on "Cocaine" and "Mean Old Frisco" aren't particularly good.

"Wonderful Tonight" is perhaps not the kind of song that most people associate (or would like to associate) with EC, but it is a really good pop song nonetheless. And "Lay Down Sally" is a catchy little number as well.
But come on....nothing, absolutely nothing on this record comes close to Eric Clapton's best.

Maybe part of the reason that I find "Slowhand" so uninspiring is Glyn John's awful, flat, dull, lifeless, one-dimentional production (the drums sound like somebody banging away on an overturned plastic bucket), but that's not the whole story. The songs just aren't good enough.
Sure, Clapton's playing is excellent, but how can anyone say that this is some of the best work of a man who has recorded "Layla", "Bell Bottom Blues", "Blues Power", "Let It Rain" and "Tell The Truth"?

To me, almost every other album Clapton recorded in the 70s and early 80s is better than this (with the exception of the critical and commercial failure "There's One In Every Crowd"). It does have its moments, sure, but they are few and far between. Three stars is certainly being generous.

Of all SACD I have in my collections, this is the only one that sounds like my speaker (Totem Rainmaker) is covered with blanket or something... Must be the sound-engineer's preference.

Yeah, we've all heard the "hit" songs off this album about 10,000 times, which in the case of "Wonderful Tonight" is about 9,997 times too many.

But there's so much good music on this album that the radio-listening public didn't get to hear that you should still have a copy of "Slowhand" on hand. It's all good.

The best song on here, in my opinion, is a toss up between the rollin' and rockin' blues "Mean Old Frisco" and John Martyn's hopeful, amusing "May You Never." Marcy Levy's vocals throughout the album are a treat, too.

And EC contributes some of the most tasteful (if not particularly inventive) guitar playing of his career.

One more thing: If you have the vinyl version of this album, next time you have a party, take the cover out, open up the gatefold and then hold your head above Clapton's guitar-playing body on the cover. I guarantee you drunk people will laugh.

"Slowhand" ranks along with "461 Ocean Boulevard" as Eric Clapton's two finest solo albums. Clapton scored one of his biggest hits with the ace cover of J.J. Cale's "Cocaine." He also came up with several of his best ever original songs in the ballad "Wonderful Tonight," and the bluesy "Lay Down Sally." Other classic cuts include the long jam "The Core," and the jealous lover's stern warning "Next Time You See Her." Clapton's guitar has never sounded sweeter and his backing band is first rate. This album is a must have for Clapton fans as well as fans of 70s rock.

This is one of the best SACD recordings I have. Compared to a CD layer, it has an unbelievable dynamic range and stunning details. You just forget about your loudspeakers, because stereo panorama is much wider than the space between them.

However, Clapto's voice and guitar sound louder on a CD, thanks to the compression. Maybe they should have remastered the original record, but I've noticed the same happens to many other SACDs and we just need some time to adjust our ears.

And also don't forget to adjust the sound level - if you listen to it at the same volume setting as a CD, you will get the same impression as previous reviewers. Again - this happens to many super audio recordings, as the removed compression makes the low intencity sounds much quieter.

A great rock album. It is worth buying, but not a great demo for a SACD, I expected much more from a SACD. MUCH better than the red book CD though ! I think the stereo layer is better than the 5.1 layer. Lay Down your money Sally !