Yes there are other albums and singles that may strike your fancy. But this one is the first to come to mind when mentioning Cream. It is too bad that the samples stop before "Tales Of Brave Ulysses" as each track is unique. Therefore you have to listen to them all to get a more complete picture of this group.

Warning this album is addictive I find my self singing, "Sunshine of Your Love" a little too loud at work and then I hear others completing the words from other cubes.

Best described as psychedelic hard rock...very hard for its day and a precursor of the heavy bands to come like Led Zep, Hendrix and Sabbath. This release is a remastered 2-disk deluxe edition with both mono and stereo versions of the album. It also includes seven demos including two versions of "Lawdy Mama" which is the exact same song as "Strange Brew" before Felix Pappalardi's wife Gail Collins came in and wrote new lyrics for it. Another strong demo is the bluesy "We're Going Wrong" featuring some nasty guitar interplay between Jack Bruce & Eric Clapton.

In addition to the demos, this package includes nine BBC recordings including versions of the yet to be released at the time "Politician" and "Born under a Bad Sign". All the BBC tracks are excellent (or should I say groovy) and surprisingly concise (no drum solos!) for Cream. There is also an alternative version of "Take It Back" with Clapton on lead vocals instead of Ginger Baker. Of course this groundbreaking album also includes the hits "Sunshine of Your Love", "SWALBR" and my personal fave..."Tales of Brave Ulysses" which was written by Clapton and sung brilliantly by Bruce. Also included is a 20 page booklet with photos and some pretty good liner notes where I learned that Ahmet Ertegun dismissed "Sunshine..." as psychedelic hogwash and amazingly Disraeli was recorded in a mere six days!

This edition is intended for the serious Cream fan only as it's very expensive and you can buy the original single CD version for a third of the price. I hope this reunion tour pans out because seeing this trio together live today would be incredible.

Cream's sophomore album "Disraeli Gears" is one of the best albums of my collection. I was propelled to buy it because I had previously enjoyed Clapton's later work (70s, Unplugged) and because I had already enjoyed psychedelic experiences such as "Sgt. Pepper", "The Who Sell Out", and Hendrix's greatest hits. This was more than satisfying.

The only song on this album that I (and many others) don't really care for is We're Going Wrong, but otherwise, every track shows you how creative Baker, Bruce, and Clapton really were. The first two songs obviously opened up the album to many of it's listeners before they listened to the album. "World of Pain" and "Dance The Night Away" are great examples of what music at the time was becoming. Ginger Baker's "Blue Condition" is a great follow-up to the previous two songs as it's waltzy beat pulls you in. "Tales of Brave Ulysses" introduced most to wah-wah, and "SWABLR" has to be the most psychedelic song on the album. "Outside Woman Blues" should've been retitled "Clapton." Of all of his songs before the 70s, this is the best foretaste of things to come. "Take It Back" is a great statement to conclude the album before the goon humor of "Mother's Lament" leads it out. Overall, the album is wonderful.

As for the deluxe packaging, well... it's better for me that the album is in stereo and mono, but there's only two tracks on the entire package that had not been previously issued, and those are "Blue Condition" with Clapton taking vocal, and one of the "Lawdy Mama" versions. The demos could already be found on the Cream box set (which has even more demos from the sessions), and the BBC recordings were issued before on Cream's BBC CD. It's still good with me, though, as this was my first Cream purchase anyways.

This is an essential album. You could buy this package or get the plain album for a more than reasonable price. Whatever your bag is. Just get it.