CRIME OF THE CENTURY

Crime of the Century is Supertramp's magnum opus, and easily one of the greatest Progressive Rock albums of all time. Led by the powerful duo of Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson, Supertramp released their most progressive album in 1974, the greatest year of progressive rock. After their weaker sophomore effort "Indelibly Stamped," this album rocketed them to commercial success. Usually, when progressive bands have popular albums they are far from their best, but this is far from that statement. This album masterfully brings the complex arrangments and conceptual lyrics of Progressive Rock into a pop context.

The album opens immediately with the band's best song of all time, "School." Chilling harmonica opens the song played by Davies. The song was one of the rare tracks that was jointly written by Davies and Hodgson. Eerie screams of a child bring the song into the main theme dominated by thumping rhythm and guitar under some great Hodgson vocals. After an ominous xylophone buildup, the song heads into the iconic piano solo from Davies. After the solo, Davies vocals join Hodgson on the turn around, and the song ends on a jazzy guitar chord. "Bloody Well Right," is a classic Davies tune, featuring amazing wurlitzer work. After a chill intro with the wurly, the song turns to a hard guitar section over rough Davies vocals and goes back and forth in between the two moods. The song features a great guitar solo from Roger Hodgson as well as an iconic Sax solo from John Anthony Helliwell.

"Hide In Your Shell," written by Hodgson, opens with a beautiful fender rhodes and vocals intro. The vocals in the song switch from the light voice of Roger, to the deeper tone of Rick. The song gives me an almost somber yet happy mood because of the switches from the soft rhodes, to the chorus. The closing minute of the song is absolutely amazing, with overlaying Hodgson harmonies on top of a moog! "Asylum," is a starts with a great piano solo. Written by Davies, the beauty of the piano is countered by Davies coarser voice. This is probably my least preffered song on the album, but is still wonderful to listen to from time to time.

"Dreamer," is the essential Hodgson track. As the lead single off of the album, it has a predictiably happy-go-lucky sound with fast wurlitzer. The song is by far the most definitive of Supertramp's overall sound. As with most of the tracks on the album, the song switches vocals at a point from Hogdson to Davies (albeit, Hodgson dominates the song). In the last minute the song picks up with the drums coming in, and returning it to te main theme. "Rudy," written by Davies is a massive highlight of the album. Opening with bluesy piano, the song quickly turns into a sad story about a boy named Rudy who can never fit in (the song is also a continuation of the same character "Rudy" from the opener "School). The song has a great thumping section near the beginning before goin into the main verse and chorus. This song could've easily been 20 minutes with the amount of themes it switches to in only 7 minutes (which is like 3 minutes in any other genre). I get chills everytime the the song picks up near the end with the strings and switch-off vocals coupled with Hodgson's amazing guitar.

"If Everyone Was Listening," is a somber Hodgson song. Dominated by slow piano and melodic horn overtures all under Hodgson's wonderful work, this song is very somber and a total deep cut on this album. The closer and title track, "Crime of the Century," is my second favorite song on this album. Jointly written by Hodgson and Davies, the song features the best of both worlds. It is also the most progressive song on the album by far. Hodgson's guitar solo during the middle of the song really sets the mood. Suddenly, chilling piano chords enter, slowly joined by drums. I get goosebumps everytime I hear the pickup in this song. After an absolutely outstanding rollercoaster of an album, this song is the perfect closer.

Crime of the Century is an absolute masterpiece, with no loose end or weakness in sight. This album is one of the best concept albums of all time and was released in a year of amazing concept albums (The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Darkside of the Moon, and many others). After this album, Supertramp went on to pursue a more pop approach to their music and released the amazing "Even in the Quietest Moments." Overall one of the greatest albums of all time and recomended to anyone.