Hear It Here

ERIC CLAPTON JOURNEYMAN

Having taken a more songbased approach on the previous album, August, with a more subtle guitar presence, this follow-up features a more ‘Eric’ style, with melodic blues phrasing on Pretending, more typical blues-infused solos on tracks such as Bad Love and Old Love – I guess the similar names would have ensured caution reading the setlist on tour, but these are very different tracks! Note how melody and expression take a similar approach to a vocal.

TOTO THE SEVENTH ONE

Steve Lukather is perfectly capable of playing technical ‘outside’ jazzy lines, but frequently takes a more restrained bluesy approach, or takes a melodic line like a vocal. This album includes many great guitar moments: Pamela features some classic Lukather blues/rock licks; A Thousand Years transitions from clean to distorted, keeping melody a priority, rather than fitting tricky licks everywhere; and These Chains is also classic Toto!

JOHN MAYER SOB ROCK

At the time of writing, there are only limited tracks available from John Mayer’s latest album as a pre-release, but his playing on Last Train Home and I Guess I Just Feel Like are in a similar vein to what I was going for in this issue’s solo. It will be interesting to see if he channels that ‘80s Clapton’ vibe into any of the other tracks when the album hits the streets and online – and it’s certainly nice to have some new material to look forward to.