FAMOUS LAST WORDS

Considering that this was the follow-up to their hugely successful album Breakfast in America, as well as the final album with Roger Hodgson, the result is greatly disappointing. At this point, Roger was focused on doing more commercial pop songs, while Rick still wanted to explore more jazz and progressive rock-influenced music, and more pop won out here. And the production is tacky and overblown throughout. The album starts weakly with the first 3 songs being vapid pop songs, catchy but irritating and pointless. However, the album improves greatly in the 2nd half, finishing strongly with the last 3 tracks, Roger's C'est Le Bon being a beautiful and heartfelt ode to his music, followed by Rick's Waiting So Long, with its more proggy tendencies, and Don't Leave Me Now, a strong and emotional closer. So, overall, it is about half of a very good album, but the weak pop songs really bring it down, so it is just pretty good, a nice album with many weaknesses. Best Tracks: C'est Le Bon, Bonnie, Waiting So Long, Don't Leave Me Now. Weakest tracks: It's Raining Again, Crazy, Put on Your Old Brown Shoes. Rating 3 stars