New Albums Today - Eric Clapton & Tom Petty

[RiversRubin]

Hey All,

I was wondering what your thoughts were if you tuned into the two releases today - Tom Petty released 'Hypnotic Eye' and Clapton released his 'Appreciation of JJ Cale' tribute/collab album.

I spent a couple hours with them today - and I'm a bit on the fence with them. I really enjoyed 'Hypnotic Eye' all the way through, but after a few runs, I ended up only settling on half a dozen tracks I'll return to, and in honesty, I'd choose a good deal of his early catalog before any of this.

I feel like that when an artist gets older, they shouldn't just refine their sound, they should explore other sounds and step outside of their comfort zone - that's why the latest albums from people like Bob Dylan or Paul McCartney are always so interesting - they don't sound like an echo of their earlier catalog. Petty's release felt like he spent too long in his comfort zone.

As for Clapton's, I also really enjoyed it the first listen through. But, as I spent more time with it, I found a couple of the songs to really drag - and again, I only feeling like returning to a couple tracks here. (I thought Willie Nelson and Mark Knopfler's additions were welcome, the rest didn't do much for me. Though, I do really like Clapton's opener, 'Call Me The Breeze.')

Did anyone else check either of these out today? What did you think?