THE VERY BEST OF SUPERTRAMP - VOLUME 2

As its title suggests, this is a sister collection to the excellent The Very Best Of Supertramp. However, while it does a great job of plugging up the gaps by giving us another 14 tracks from the masters of progressive pop, the truth is that most of the goodies were snapped by the original compilation. Thus while it's great to have if you've already picked up the first volume, this one doesn't necessarily cut the mustard on its own.

On the downside you have Lady, Oh Darling, Just Another Nervous Wreck, (the Barry Manilow-esque!) Downstream, the doo-wop effort My Kind Of Lady and the forgettable post-Hodgson effort Free As A Bird, which are passable pieces of pop that don't match the standards of Supertramp's better songs. A Soapbox Opera, on the other hand, is pretty creative but just doesn't strike the right chord with me.

On the positive side, you have one of Supertramp's greatest prog moments in Fool's Overture, which overcomes the considerable handicap of a cheesy synth sound to prove its class. My favourite track here is probably the vaguely psychedelic Even In The Quietest Moments (the track) which with its phased vocals and pastoral background is a great if atypical song. On the other hand Waiting So Long, Gone Hollywood and the mournful Don't Leave Me Now belong to that class of Supertramp epic that moves seamlessly between light pop and heavy rock. I should also say that there is an air of desperation about both If Everyone Was Listening and Babaji that prompts me to reach for the fast-forward button (even if both are decent songs).

Supertramp's brand of progressive pop may not be to everyone's tastes, and I would still suggest you start with the first volume or the Crime Of The Century album before coming to this one, but I must say (with apologies to the purists) that I'm pretty content with just the two "Best Of" volumes. ... 53% on the MPV scale