There are many Eric Claptons: firebrand electric bluesman, psychedelic jam god, avuncular song historian, easy-listening singer-songwriter. Clapton's 21st LP finds him mainly playing the latter two roles with an all-star crew. The song selection, long on covers, is promising: vintage folk, blues, soul, country and reggae; American-songbook classics by Gershwin and Kern; plus new material written by his band. Of the latter, "Gotta Get Over" is lit by a funky Chaka Khan cameo and the set's hottest guitar work. "Every Little Thing," meanwhile, is a love-is-all-you-need anthem that trots out the Clapton kids and feels like an iPhone slide-show soundtrack. For the Billie Holiday-associated "All of Me," Paul McCartney drops in for a duet that could be an outtake from his recent standards LP; Clapton follows with a soulful reading of "Born to Lose" á la Ray Charles' Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. 

But "The Folks Who Live on the Hill" misses the class-conscious irony at that standard's core, and the reggae grooves – a take on Peter Tosh's "Till Your Well Runs Dry" recalls Clapton's hit cover of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" – are light. Per the title, this is comfort music, made by a guy who seems to be chilling with friends. If it sometimes sounds too comfortable, well, Clapton has probably earned it.

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.