"Ain't got time to waste / Keep thinking about the future," Jack Bruce wails in "Lives of Clay." On the second track of his forceful, album-length alliance with guitarist Robin Trower, Bruce's signature bass lines chug beneath the blues-powered lead guitar. The duo sounds as if ready to break out, rather than the legendary veterans of more than four decades in the business. Long-time jazz and rock session drummer Gary Husband completes the trio for these live-in-studio sessions, which showcase the genius of Bruce and Trower equally and collaboratively. Trower's Hendrix-style fingering leads the relentless title track, and his bluesy romps power the slower ballads, especially the shadowy "Distant Places of the Heart" and "Bad Case of Celebrity," a bluesy romp through the heart of pop idolism. As for Bruce, you wonder where 40 years have gone since Cream closed it down at the Royal Albert Hall. His familiar blues-based, bass-driven melodies chauffeur the album's rockers, notably "Lives of Clay," "She's Not the One," and the superlative "The Last Door." On this, he announces: "We came to search for what was lost." Clearly, they found what they were looking for. --Scott Holter
