Blak and Blu

Rolling Stone 3.5/5 Give Clark credit for striving to be something more than a blues-rock throwback and singing from a troubled heart. And hope that he gets through the narrow portals of pop radio. But on this album, it’s still his blues that cut deepest.

All Music 4/5 Blak and Blu's production (by Rob Cavallo and Mike Elizondo in collaboration with Clark) is too polished and processed for its own good, but if this album isn't likely to change your life, it will make an hour of it a lot more interesting, and there's no arguing that Gary Clark, Jr. is a talent strong enough to match his record company's hype.

Pop Matters 7/10 As it stands, Blak & Blu certainly isn’t legendary. But it’s a pretty good start.

The Guardian 4/5 His own tunes range all over the place – Travis County is breathless garage-rock, The Life a debonair, Ne-Yo-like homage to idleness – but the quality is uniformly high.