Artist: Cream
Title: Wheels Of Fire
Year Of Release: 1968 / 1989
Label: RSO Records / Polydor K.K. #P36W 22003/4
Genre: Blues Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Classic Rock
Quality: EAC Rip -> FLAC (Img+Cue,Log) / MP3 CBR320
Total Time: 2CD (00:36:07 + 00:44:18)
Total Size: 535 / 240 Mb (Full Scans)
WebSite: Album Preview

If Disraeli Gears was the album where Cream came into their own, its successor, Wheels of Fire, finds the trio in full fight, capturing every side of their multi-faceted personality, even hinting at the internal pressures that soon would tear the band asunder. A dense, unwieldy double album split into an LP of new studio material and an LP of live material, it's sprawling and scattered, at once awesome in its achievement and maddening in how it falls just short of greatness. It misses its goal not because one LP works and the other doesn't, but because both the live and studio sets suffer from strikingly similar flaws, deriving from the constant power struggle between the trio. Of the three, Ginger Baker comes up short, contributing the passable 'Passing the Time' and 'Those Were the Days,' which are overshadowed by how he extends his solo drum showcase 'Toad' to a numbing quarter of an hour and trips upon the Wind & the Willows whimsy of 'Pressed Rat and Warthog,' whose studied eccentricity pales next to Eric Clapton's nimble, eerily cheerful 'Anyone for Tennis.' In almost every regard, Wheels of Fire is a terrific showcase for Clapton as a guitarist, especially on the first side of the live album with 'Crossroads,' a mighty encapsulation of all of his strengths. Some of that is studio trickery, as producer Felix Pappalardi cut together the best bits of a winding improvisation to a tight four minutes, giving this track a relentless momentum that's exceptionally exciting, but there's no denying that Clapton is at a peak here, whether he's tearing off solos on a 17-minute 'Spoonful' or goosing 'White Room' toward the heights of madness. But it's the architect of 'White Room,' bassist Jack Bruce, who, along with his collaborator Peter Brown, reaches a peak as a songwriter. Aside from the monumental 'White Room,' he has the lovely, wistful 'As You Said,' the cinematic 'Deserted Cities of the Heart,' and the slow, cynical blues 'Politician,' all among Cream's very best work. And in many ways Wheels of Fire is indeed filled with Cream's very best work, since it also captures the fury and invention (and indulgence) of the band at its peak on the stage and in the studio, but as it tries to find a delicate balance between these three titanic egos, it doesn't quite add up to something greater than the sum of its parts. But taken alone, those individual parts are often quite tremendous.
~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music

Artist: Cream
Title: Wheels of Fire
Year Of Release: 2014 [1968]
Label: Polydor Records
Genre: Rock, Blues Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Quality: 320 kbps / FLAC [192kHz/24bit]
Total Time: 1:23:46
Total Size: 198 mb / 3.73 gb
WebSite: Album Preview

Transfers and Mastering by Seth Foster at Sterling Sound, NYC
All digital files were mastered directly from the original analogue tapes using a custom-made analog transferring console and native hi resolution digital converters.
Tape research and remastering supervision by Bill Levenson
Wheels of Fire was released in August of 1968 and was comprised of a studio album and a live album. It was the first platinum-selling double album and reached #3 in the UK and #1 in the United States. The album was produced by Felix Pappalardi and the live album was recorded at shows played at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom and The Fillmore.
Recorded in July, August 1967 at IBC Studios, London
September – October 1967, January – February, June 1968 at Atlantic Studios, New York
8 and 10 March 1968 at Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, California
7 March 1968 at The Fillmore, San Francisco