IN THE EYE OF THE STORM

I'm really puzzled here. Not with Rodger Hodgson or Supertramp but with myself. Some time next year I will do my review of a Supertramp compilation and will reveal my feelings about this band there but to me the front man of the band (mr Hodgson) has never had my full respect. I always regarded him as a sort of cunning shrewd guy trying to play a double game and gain advantage of both sides so to speak. Maybe it's a wrong interpretation but I have the feeling he wants both the respect from communities like ours by writing sophisticated music and at the same time keep the sales in mind as well. A bit like mr Collins decided to do in the late seventies but for me Supertramp has been like this their entire career.

And Rodger Hodgson as the prime mastermind behind this concept, that's the idea more or less. And where I already see Supertramp as a sophisticated pop group, Hodgson solo is even worse in this respect. Well, at least he's just in prog related where the band is in crossover so that's at least better taken care of. Now about the album and that's where the being puzzled came from: how on earth could I ever buy both the vinyl and the disk of this release ??? That's how cunning mr Hodgson is: somehow he made me do it. The only excuse I have is that the disk was for sale at a very low price here but other than that ...

Because In the Eye of the Storm is an album with very little prog in it I have to say. I just played it for the very last time (since many many years) and it appeared even worse than I thought. But I will try to be fair here. Is this bad or poor music ? No way ! Is this interesting for a prog fan ? No way ! My opinion is even that it shouldn't be on this site but that's the only thing I will say about this.

Conclusion: six nice pop songs at best and ... one truly excellent piece of work to finish off the album with: the splendid Only because of you is worth the purchase and must have been the reason I went for the disk as well. But in the end I feel I shouldn't have. Anyway, in what rating does this all result ? It's somewhere in between two and three stars for me but the main thing is that this isn't anything like prog and I maybe even shouldn't have reviewed it but it for sure makes me decide for the two stars in the end.