★★★★★
Texas bluesman Gary Clark Jr has already been around for years and has little to prove - Barack Obama declared him to be "the future" when he played at the White House and the press has already compared him with Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. His major label debut finds him mixing styles from the urban title track and stoner's lament The Life to staight rock'n'roller Travis County and sweet ballads such as Please Come Home...
- www.guardian.co.uk
2013-02-23
★★★★★
Playing "nasty, sloppy, chunky, wailing" guitar is Gary Clark Jr's self-described thing, and it's reaped the young Texas bluesman a coterie of celebrity fans. The renowned rock critic Barack Obama has even declared Clark to be "the future", which he could be, in as much as he's trying to persuade Generation Y that there's more to blues-rock than they've experienced via the likes of the Black Keys...
- www.guardian.co.uk
2013-02-21
★★★★★
The heart of Gary Clark, Jr. isn't tough to find. At his core, the Texas-born guitarist continues the spirit of and Eddie Hazel: his piercing chords can tell a story without words on top of them. Clearly, Clark appreciates the past, since much of Blak and Blu is rooted in some sort of musical yesteryear. Please Come Home, for instance, is a wistful melody evoking 1960s soul...
- www.bbc.co.uk
2013-04-23
★★★★★
Will the real Gary Clark Jr please stand up? At The Tote in September, Clark tore through over an hour of dirty blues tempered with velvet-covered soul. By the end of the set, the crowd was transfixed by the guitarist's talent, not to mention his sincerity and humility. Like The White Stripes in 2000, there was a sense this was a moment you wouldn't experience again. Clark's debut album, Blak And Blu, is a mixed bag...
- www.beat.com.au
2012-12-18
★★★★★
8
SPIN Essentials
Release Date: October 22, 2012Label: Warner Bros.
Make no mistake: Gary Clark Jr.'s major-label debut aims to introduce the Austin-based blues luminary to the widest possible audience. But which Gary Clark Jr. do you want to meet? The forceful stylist, sent to enrapture long-suffering blues fetishists? The cunning neo-soul charmer who's played sidekick to Alicia Keys...
- www.spin.com
2012-11-20
★★★★★
Make no mistake: Gary Clark Jr.'s major-label debut aims to introduce the Austin-based blues luminary to the widest possible audience. But which Gary Clark Jr. do you want to meet? The forceful stylist, sent to enrapture long-suffering blues fetishists? The cunning neo-soul charmer who's played sidekick to Alicia Keys? How about the "New Hendrix" that rock critics spent the past year stammering over? Or perhaps the heir apparent to garage-rock breakouts like the Black Keys or White Stripes...
- www.spin.com
2012-11-20
★★★★★
Gary Clark Jr.Blak and Blu (Warner Bros.) A Stax-like blare of horns, curlicue guitar hook tickling the left channel, and a barrage of steam-engine riffs pulling into the station all at once set the proverbial stage for Gary Clark Jr.'s declaration of intent on Blak and Blue fuse "Ain't Messin 'Round": "I don't believe in competition/ Ain't nobody else like me around." Two out of three ain't bad...
- www.austinchronicle.com
2012-11-15
★★★★★
Since the release of his acclaimed EP, Gary Clark Jr. has attracted the attentive ear of fellow musicians and listeners alike, and rightfully so. With a guitar style that fuses elements of Delta blues, classic R & B and garage rock, the Austin native fulfills the heavy burden of expectation on his highly anticipated debut...
- filtermagazine.com
2012-11-05
★★★★★
Warner Bros. For roughly the last two years on stages large and small, Austin, Texas' Gary Clark Jr. has made his case for a blues guitar resurgence to rival the likes of Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan and even Jimi Hendrix. But his long-awaited debut embraces much more than just the blues; from the soul revue vibes of the opening "Ain't Messin' Around" to the mournful Mississippi Delta slides of "Next Door Neighbor Blues," Clark brings all his influences to bear...
- www.relix.com
2012-11-05