First Cream

Cream - Those Were The Days (1997) {4CD boxset Polydor 31453 9000-2 rec 1968-1972}
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© 1968-72, 1997 Polydor / PolyGram | 31453 9000-2
Rock / Blues Rock / Hard Rock / Psychedelic / British Blues

Those Were the Days is an ambitious four-disc, 63-track box set that divides Cream's career into two halves. The first two discs feature every studio track the group ever released, plus a handful of unreleased cuts, alternate takes, and rarities. The other two discs are devoted to live material, which is segued together in an attempt to recreate the "ideal" Cream concert. It's a remarkably comprehensive collection, complete with an extensive booklet and remastered sound, yet it doesn't reveal any new insights about Cream, nor does it offer any invaluable rarities. Therefore, it's only for die-hard collectors or listeners wanting to acquire the entire Cream catalog at once; casual fans will be satisfied with individual albums or greatest-hits collections.

Fresh Cream represents so many different firsts, it's difficult to keep count. Cream, of course, was the first supergroup, but their first album not only gave birth to the power trio, it also was instrumental in the birth of heavy metal and the birth of jam rock. That's a lot of weight for one record and, like a lot of pioneering records, Fresh Cream doesn't seem quite as mighty as what would come later, both from the group and its acolytes. In retrospect, the moments on the LP that are a bit unformed – in particular, the halting waltz of "Dreaming" never achieves the sweet ethereal atmosphere it aspires to – stand out more than the innovations, which have been so thoroughly assimilated into the vocabulary of rock & roll, but Fresh Cream was a remarkable shift forward in rock upon its 1966 release and it remains quite potent.

German rockers Pink Cream 69 caught the tail-end of the '80s party-metal boom before adopting a more traditional European hard rock/power metal approach that they would cultivate into the next century. Founded in 1987 by vocalist Andi Deris, guitarist Alfred Koffler, drummer Kosta Zafiriou, and bassist Dennis Ward, the band released their eponymous debut long-player in 1989 via Epic. Deris left the group in 1994 to join Helloween, and was replaced by British vocalist David Readman, who made his first appearance on the group's fourth LP, Change. The band became a five-piece in 2003 with the arrival of second guitarist Uwe Reitenauer, who was hired to help out Alfred Koffler, who was struggling with Focal Dystonia, a neurological condition that made playing difficult - Reitenauer made his debut on 2007's In10sity…