Fresh Cream represents so many different firsts, it’s difficult to keep count. Cream, of course, was the first supergroup, but their first album not only gave birth to the power trio, it also was instrumental in the birth of heavy metal and the birth of jam rock.
- Stephen Thomas Erlewine/AMG (4/5 Stars) -

Fresh Cream is the debut studio album by British supergroup Cream. It was the first LP release of producer Robert Stigwood’s new “Independent” Reaction Records label, released in the UK as both a mono and stereo version on 9 December 1966, the same time as the single release of “I Feel Free”. The album was released a month later, in January 1967, in the United States by Atco Records as both a mono and a stereo version.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 101 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Fresh Cream represents so many different firsts, it’s difficult to keep count. Cream, of course, was the first supergroup, but their first album not only gave birth to the power trio, it also was instrumental in the birth of heavy metal and the birth of jam rock. That’s a lot of weight for one record and, like a lot of pioneering records, Fresh Cream doesn’t seem quite as mighty as what would come later, both from the group and its acolytes.