In Brief

** B.B. King and Eric Clapton, “Riding With the King,” Reprise. Nothing like buckets of mutual admiration to dash cold water over what should have been a fiery modern blues summit meeting of two masters. The guitar work and vocal collaborating are plenty tasteful and respectful, but this album (in stores Tuesday) is by and large academic blues-making, not the steamy, scorching stuff each of these legends has cooked up in the past.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.