CRIME OF THE CENTURY

This was the 3rd release by Super tramp and is by far their best collection of songs. At the time it was fashionable to make a big deal about how bad school was so "school" just follows on this theme, these days I find the lyrics rather poor and irresponsible but the music is cool." Bloody well Right" tee hee they said Bloody, and really this was quite daring at the time. I remember this well and my mothers reaction, was shock as one would expect...its a long time ago , and this depressing little song has not aged well. Its ok but but again its really nothing very special. "Hide in your Shell " on the other hand is a real gem with a very pleasant if downbeat vocal, my only criticism is that at times this vocal sounds a little over done, almost tearful, good number though."Asylum" starts really well with an excellent piano intro the lyrics are clever and this is a corking song. "Dreamer" was a big hit and is a pretty decent pop song. "Rudy" well this was a favorite because it mentions Swindon, super-tramp were living near the town at the time, and in fact my first copy of this record was given to me by the boys went we went to visit them one day after school.. Other than it nostalgia value to me personally this is a good song which tells a cautionary story about waiting for and putting things off rather than grabbing what life offers. Ruby's life just passed him by (I expect that living in Swindon didn't help as it was a tiny regional town way back then ) "If Everyone Was Listening " is another fine if unremarkable song, with great playing. "Crime of The Century " is probably the best song on this Lp and is again pretty good with great playing. Taking the LP song by song its not a very strong set really, but somehow the whole is grater than its parts and this record is by far the best supertramp ever did. Live they were incredible boring to watch and reproduced the music so faultlessly that you could almost have been listening to the record. Certainly Supertramp were fine musicians and they were reasonable composers. They went on to conquer america and become a massive success. It is very hard to point to one factor that made them a good band other than the fact that they were indeed that a band ,there is no great Ego tripping going on here or live. Supertramp are not my favorite band other than this record they seem a second division prog band. This record is remarkable for being a collection of rather ordinary songs played by extraordinary competent musicians that as a collection is far better than any single song in the set. The whole album captures a mood and flows very well, as it is a concept album it must rate as one of the finest of it type and is an essential item in any well rounded collection.