Behind the Sun

While many of his '60s peers struggled to find a place within the high-tech production scene of the '80s, Eric Clapton was one of the few Woodstock-era stars to be revitalized by the decade’s stylistic changes. 1985’s Behind the Sun is the result of a partnership with Phil Collins, who produced, cowrote, and played on the album. Unsurprisingly, it sounds a lot like Phil Collins’ work from the same period, although Clapton is hardly a pawn in the scheme. “See What Love Can Do,” “Something’s Happening," and “Forever Man” contain some of Clapton's most impassioned vocal takes since the early '70s, while his signature guitar work is seamlessly blended into the roiling, synthesizer-driven rhythms of “Same Old Blues,” “Just Like a Prisoner," and "She’s Waiting.” (The last is a hard rock/blues hybrid upgraded for the glistening '80s.) Recorded while Clapton was in the middle of splitting from his longtime spouse and muse Pattie Boyd, Behind the Sun is driven by inner turmoil. But rather than let turmoil saturate his music the way it did in the late '70s, the album uses frustration and anxiety to stoke new fires in the old bluesman.