REVIEWS:
Post your comments about Supertramp
(reviewed by Casey Brennan)
After a pair of virtually un-known progressive rock albums called Supertramp and Indelibly Stamped, Supertramp finally catapulted into super-stardom with their third release Crime Of The Century. Coming a full-fledged three years after their second album, it sure gave the band a good amount of time to learn a bit on how to develop a style of progressive-pop that is both focused, well-crafted, and interesting at the same time. Indeed, they learned well; through-out much of this album they hit that in spades. Spawning the singles "Bloody Well Right", a dynamic proggy number that opens up with melodic keyboard soloing (while random dashes of the rhythm section play against it) before going into the crunching guitar-heavy verses, and "Dreamer", a delightful bouncy pop tune with beyond goofy vocals and lyrics, it is no wonder that, in the year that pretty much kick-started the slow decline of early British progressive rock, this became so popular.
The tunes are accessible and catchy (while sometimes quite lengthy), and the band retains a strong melodic sense on almost every track. Just as, or even more remarkable, is the note-by-note and well-calculated production job, which couldn't be better. The opener "School" is one of the many great examples of perfect production standards on here; there is a Floydish vibe (circa Dark Side of course) in the overall guitar tone, nicely textured instrumentation through-out, and great flow from the slow to fast tempo sections. It's a pretty well-structured and great effort by these guys. It's also nice to hear Rich Davies (lead singer #1), who has an overly goofy voice, and Roger Hodgson (lead singer #2), who has a fairly normal voice, use call and response vocals to good effect in various parts of "Hide Your Shell" and "Asylum", and towards the dramatic orchestrated ending of the cabaret piano ballad "Rudy". It really does spice things up a bit.
The melodies are very decent in all three of course, but it does make seemingly light-weight 'Billy Joel-ish' piano numbers like the aforementioned "Asylum" and "Rudy" come very much alive. Anyway, another highlight (besides the two major hit singles) comes in the very cute, almost geeky-sounding (due to the light tone of the keyboard) "Hide In Your Shell", which contains one of the catchiest melodies in the opening verse and lightly bouncing keyboard playing throughout. That ultimately leaves the less-than-epic piano tracks "If Everyone Was Listening" and "Crime of The Century" left. Compared to the other tunes they leave a little bit to be desired, especially considering that they give the album a monotonous mood by its' end, but they are still alright anyway. A pretty well-accomplished album from the 'tramps' I must say; it's one of those records that kinda bridges the gap between early progressive rock like Yes, Genesis, and E.L.P., and later arena-rock prog like Foreigner and Styx. Thank god this sounds closer to the former.
Post your comments / reviews for this album
(Casey Brennan's review)
Crime Of The Century may have been the better album overall, but Breakfast In America was Supertramp's shining moment. Basicially you can think of it as one of those singles albums, much like Boston's first album, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, or whatever else comes to mind, because this contains no less than five (or is it four?) blockbuster hits. "The Logical Song" might be the most well-known with its' memorable minor keyboard melody and lyrics that go.. 'But then they sent me away to teach me how to be sensible... logical... responsible.. practical'. It's definitely one of those tunes you'd know just by hearing it. Very infectious. The rest of the record is full of similar well-crafted, catchy, and bouncy keyboard pop like this - it's no small feat that this album became so successful. The progressive rock inclinations are almost gone except for maybe in the overlooked "Child of Vision", which is actually just a lengthy pop tune with a bunch of fast keyboard playing.
The rest is just some of the catchiest material the band ever did. The opener "Gone Hollywood", "Goodbye Stranger", the striking title track (I love the lyrics to this one), and "Take the Long Way Home" are all highly enjoyable hits, with the right amount of hooks to keep the listener glued. So there you have it, that's over half of the album right there. Now that I have to say a little bit about the other tracks, I wanna tell you that they aren't exactly memorable or engaging. "Oh Darling", "Lord Is It Mine", "Just Another Nervous Wreck", and "Casual Conversations" are alright of course, but unlike the hits, they just pass me by every time. Unfortunately, as with many albums' like this (which are known as classics because nearly half the album is single material), the album tracks just aren't up to snuff. I'd hate to get too subjective, but this is just one of those albums that I don't really care to listen to at all (though I did quite a few times). There really isn't much else to say, except that these nice 'filler' tunes keep the album from getting a great rating. Still, as awesome as the hits are, it gets no less than a good rating.
HIGH POINTS: Take The Long Way Home, Goodbye Stranger, The Logical Song. LOW POINTS: Child Of Vision.
Supertramp seems to be one of those groups that people love to hate nowadays, like Boston, Styx, or Kansas. And the reasons are there and people could (and do) complain about them all day long. I only have this album, one loaded down with hits, but I tell you these hits are good. But unfortunately they are the only things on the album really worth mentioning as they are quite forgettable. Not bad (except for “Child Of Vision” which drags on for what seems like forever), but nothing exciting. I guess that’s the way it goes with albums like there. Cool cover, though.
As far as the individual hits go I can say that “Take The Long Way Home” is probably my favorite here with a melody that gets stuck in my head at least once a week or so. Same thing goes for “Goodbye Stranger,” where I will admit the vocals get slightly irritating at times, but that isn't hard to live with. And then there’s “The Logical Song.” Boy does this one get trampled over so often nowadays. Well, I'm going to defend it here, and my defense may be a bit weak and it’s not one I often use but that song is damn catchy. Call it however corny you want with the saxophone and lyrics or whatever but don't try to deny this fact.
So there’s a bunch of great songs on here and only one serious misstep (which isn't even all that bad, just long). But as far as the overall quality of the album goes I can't rate it too highly at all because, quite frankly, everything you need here is on the radio (or just record the whole thing off of the radio, like I did). So yeah, it’s a good album, but no, it’s not one that you need.
Post your comments / reviews for this album