Cream's last really deliberate effort in the studio, Wheels of Fire stands out as one of the all-time greatest rock albums, and one of the top ten albums of the sixties. Driven by the singles, "White Room" and  "Crossroads," this was Cream's first and only number one album  and the first album to be certified platinum, ever. Somewhat less coherent  than Disraeli Gears, due to the increasing division between the band  members, Wheels of Fire could be called Cream's White Album, showing the  band moving off into separate directions with their respective writing  partners and turning up with some surprisingly different, innovative and  original songs. More melancholy and introspective than Disraeli Gears,  Wheels of Fire jams less and grooves more, particularly on the ever topical  "Politician" and the super precise "Sitting On Top of the  World." Other songs seem like more of a throwback to Fresh Cream, the  dreamy "As You Said" and "Those Were the Days" in  particular. The cello-accented ballad, "Deserted Cities of the  Heart," is one of Bruce and Brown's best, and there's more than a  touch of strangeness in Baker's amusing and quaint recital of "Pressed  Rat and Warthog." Eric, sitting out on the song-writing for a while,  makes sure that no one completely forgets the blues, contributing  arrangements of "Born Under A Bad Sign" and  "Crossroads." On the second disc, the live material, as usual, is  where Cream really shines. It seems as if they picked one song to showcase  each band member, then chose the classic "Spoonful" to highlight  them all. The instrumentation is even more magnificent than ever, showing  incredible precision from all the members, especially Baker, whose drum  solo on the live version of "Toad" is the only drum solo I've  been able to tolerate, let only enjoy. "Crossroads" shows  Clapton's soloing at its best, and "Traintime" features Bruce  nearly passing out during a seven minute blues harp marathon. Listening to  him gasp for breath near the end, yet keep on singing and playing, is to  witness an inspiring sacrifice from an artist truly willing to suffer for  his art. Cream's best album really could be considered a toss up between  this one and Disraeli Gears, but I favor this one marginally because  there's not a single slipup included.