Despite his fame and adoration as one of the best living rock guitarists, Eric Clapton has rarely made music that could be described as transcendent. At best, he is a workmanlike blues player, unable to rise above the genre's origins. Cream and Blind Faith certainly had moments of greatness but, overall, Clapton's career has been marred by something many classic guitar players suffer from. He is technically skilled, but lacks panache.

One major exception to this rule is Clapton's brief tenure with Derek and the Dominos, a group which managed to produce one classic album despite internal tensions, drug abuse and Clapton's worsening withdrawal from the music industry. Supporters of Clapton's work need look no further than "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" for evidence of the passion and style unavailable on almost any other of the many releases in his enormous catalogue; no matter how many more records Clapton adds to his bloated resume, "Layla" is his crowning achievement.

In many ways, "Layla" is an autobiographical work for Clapton. He had fallen deeply in love with the wife of his best friend, ex-Beatle George Harrison, and almost all of the tracks on the album deal with the pain and longing of unrequited love. This is readily apparent in the lyrics of "Bell Bottom Blues," "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad" and especially the title track. The inclusion of several blues standards reinforces the concept, with Billy Myles' "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" effectively summing up the album's essence in just one couplet: "Have you ever loved a woman so much it's a shame and a sin?/ And all the time you know she belongs to your very best friend."

Clapton's excellent anguished lyrics are ably supported by the music of the Dominos. Few bands have supplanted their own blues origins as spectacularly as this band, comprising keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle, drummer Jim Gordon and guitarists Clapton and Duane Allman. The Dominos attain a rawness more characteristic of contemporary Rolling Stones records than Clapton and Allman's work at the time, giving "Layla" an aural excitement normally only available in-concert. Many of the tunes were recorded live in the studio, explaining the intensity.

Though Derek and the Dominos frequently avoid tedium despite their propensity for long, jam-based recordings, "Layla" does lag at times. This is mostly true on the blues covers. The almost 10 minute "Key to the Highway" can be meandering and exhausting, as can the shorter "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out." However, this is remedied by the band's spectacular cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing," a fitting tribute added to the record after the legendary guitarist's death. The original material is also stellar, with "I Looked Away," "Bell Bottom Blues" and, of course, "Layla" representing the album at its best, combining stellar instrumentation with Clapton's magnificent soul-searching lyrics.

It's often sadly ironic that an artist produces his best work when he is at his worst. Unfortunately for Clapton, but fortunately for listeners, "Layla" represents that paradox neatly, giving the world his best music even as the famous guitarist fell apart.