William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

Now, here's a star-crossed album. Polydor rejected the first version of it, produced by Glyn Johns, and Eric Clapton was forced to cut it all over again with Tom Dowd. Then, a few dates into a U.S. promotional tour coinciding with its release, Clapton collapsed and was found to be near death from ulcers due to his alcoholism. Finally, it turned out to be the final record of his 15-year association with Polydor, which therefore had no reason to promote it. Nevertheless, the album made the Top Ten, went gold, and spawned a Top Ten single in "I Can't Stand It." And the rest of it wasn't too shabby, either. The first and last Clapton studio album to feature his all-British band of the early '80s, it gave considerable prominence to second guitarist Albert Lee and especially to keyboard player/singer Gary Brooker (formerly leader of Procol Harum), and they gave it more of a blues-rock feel than the country-funk brewed up by the Tulsa shuffle crew Clapton had used throughout the 1970s. Best of all, Clapton had taken the time to write some songs — he's credited on six of the nine selections — and tunes such as the title track and "I Can't Stand It" held up well. This wasn't great Clapton, but it was good, and it deserved more recognition than conditions allowed it at the time.

Editor's correction: Polydor should be RSO records (Robert Stigwood Organisation).

Personnel: Eric Clapton, Albert Lee (vocals, guitar); Gary Brooker (vocals, keyboards); Chris Stainton (keyboards); Dave Markee (bass); Henry Spinetti (drums, percussion). All tracks have been digitally remastered.

On Eric Clapton's last studio album for RSO Records, he re-teamed with producer Tom Dowd on a record that found the talented guitarist writing the words and music for most of the material. Dedicated to recently deceased Domino/bandmate Carl Radle, ANOTHER TICKET found Clapton backed by most of the band he'd toured with in Japan (where the live JUST ONE NIGHT was recorded) including the nimble-fingered Albert Lee and keyboardist Chris Stainton. Tipping his hat to the blues, Slowhand interprets Muddy Waters ("Blow Wind Blow") and Sleepy John Estes ("Floating Bridge"). The only other cover Clapton included was by country songwriters Troy Seals and Eddie Setser ("Black Rose"). As for his own material, Clapton's only dabbling with the mellow singer-songwriter image he'd cultivated in the '70s is found in "Something Special." Elsewhere, the guitar hero delves into lite funk ("Catch Me If You Can," co-written with Procul Harum's Gary Brooker, who also played on the album), borderline fusion ("Rita Mae") and pop both catchy ("I Can't Stand It") and frothy (the title track).

John Piccarella, Rolling Stone issue 346, June 25th 1981

It seems as if Eric Clapton's entire solo career has been an exercise in humility – as if he can't forgive himself for all those overindulgent psychedelic jams of the past, the Clapton is god superstardom, the self-destructive lifestyle. But despite the near-ascetic modesty and earnest commercial meticulousness of his solo LPs, the same huge spirit that powered his most tumultuous performances with Cream or Derek and the Dominos continues to inform his playing. As last year's live album or any of his concerts affirm, he can still let go with riveting ferocity when he wants to. And, on many of his later records, there's at least one cut that seethes with enough rhythmic intensity to prod – and frustrate – fans who can't forget the Sixties.

The decision to create expert, accessible, marketable music often results in a "nothing special" reception from listeners. Though the younger Clapton was earthshaking as a guitarist, he was nothing special, even rather shy, as a singer and writer. Unfortunately, great solos don't make for much of a career outside a group context. Beginning with his excellent 1974 "comeback" LP, 461 Ocean Boulevard, Eric Clapton began to grow increasingly confident and conscientious as a vocalist and song stylist. His blues were more traditionally rendered, with guitar riffs functioning as sharp, precise accompaniment. Tunes weren't merely frames for extended soloing. Clapton also began to acquire reggae, gospel, honky-tonk and country influences, treating them with all the humble respect he paid the blues. His production values reflected this sobriety, moving from density to clarity, from deliriousness to restraint.

While Another Ticket continues in the same vein and is quite similar to Clapton's last studio album, Backless (1978), there are significant differences. The band that Clapton worked with through most of the Seventies (which included the late Carl Dean Radle, to whose memory Another Ticket is dedicated) has been replaced. Second guitarist Albert Lee, who's performed with Clapton onstage, plays rough and pushes the star harder than his predecessor, George Terry, though both share Clapton's aggressive, rhythmic style. Restrained as it is, the two-guitar interplay with Lee is the finest that Eric Clapton has engaged in since his and Duane Allman's virtuosity on Layla. The other changes are the absence of a female backup singer and the presence of two keyboardists. These changes allow for arrangements that recall Bob Dylan and the Band.

There are differences in content, too. While "I Can't Stand It" is an apt sequel to "Lay Down Sally" and "Promises," it's tougher in tone and attitude. Another Ticket's cover versions, instead of drawing upon such contemporaries as Dylan, J.J. Cale or John Martyn, revisit master bluesmen. The Muddy Waters number, "Blow Wind Blow," is true to the Waters manner of slam-down guitar rhythms and gravelly vocalizing, though there's a hint of tongue-in-cheek in Clapton's easygoing gruffness. The uptempo fillers (e.g., "Something Special") sound like "Tulsa Time" and other variations on that upbeat, syncopated shuffle style.

One of the best things about Clapton's new group – guitarist Lee, keyboard players Gary Brooker and Chris Stainton, bassist Dave Markee, drummer Henry Spinetti–is the way the musicians maintain interest during a ballad or slow blues. The Band-type backup singing (by Brooker and Lee) and concise guitar fills keep a lengthy composition like the title track afloat. Orchestral synthesizers and piano glissandos lend an ethereal quality to the thematic inertia of "Another Ticket." This becalmed resignation, like the more energetic downers on side two, is possessed of an eerie apprehension of death that lends such a seemingly light-spirited record its somber undertone.

Another Ticket's longest cut, a beautiful restoration of Sleepy John Estes' "Floating Bridge," might be the most subtle, refined slow blues that Clapton has ever done, its surreal lyric unfolding between quietly emotive solos. Preceded by a country gospel tune in which the singer prays, "Hold me Lord.../I'm slipping through," and followed by the deceptively bouncy "Catch Me if You Can" (which concludes, "You'd better find a shovel/'Cause I've gone to ground"), Estes' chilling tale of drowning in "muddy water" is the centerpiece of the second side's premonition suite. The LP's closing number, "Rita Mae," which finds Clapton and Lee in a dueling guitar tag that's the hottest studio jam he's recorded since Slowhand's "The Core" (1977), is the only song on side two that's not about dying. It's about murder. As an artist often criticized for mellowing out, Eric Clapton has succeeded in making very popular music from an authentic and deeply tragic blues sensibility. He addresses both the heart and the charts in the same way: with a bullet.

© Frank Steven Groen