Right from the opener, you know that you will not find the delicate folk harmonies that made us fly in the previous three albums, and we are stuck with obtrusive (and obstructive;-) country rock feels, needless hard rock tracks and unjustified string arrangements. Even though Weaver over-floods the opening track middle section with mellotrons, he cannot save it with its Gabriel-Moody Blues verse-chorus bit. The tracks of the first side of the vinyl are all of the same mould I just described except for the rather short The River, which is slightly folkier. The harder-edged Down By The Sea (also with Trons) is again not far from ultra early Genesis and Moody Blues, but it hardly saves the day and over-done string arrangements, but it might just be a rare highlight.

The second side starts with the two-part Tears and it is the other highlight on this album, with its lush mellotrons (tons of Trons ;-), but again Genesis-inspired and it does feel a bit forced, especially with its Greek folk Syrtaky dance second movement before Gabriel and Banks (Eeehhmmm!!!.. I mean Cousins and Weaver;-) re-enter the track. The follow-up is rather insignificant but remains charming especially with the awful country hit single to come: Lay Down. It should do just that, but if you want to hear mellotrons-laden country rock, this is worth a good laugh: it almost works too >> we are laughing. The closing track Backside (slightly Spanish-sounding backtrack) is actually better than the average of the album it stands in: this is a change, for The Strawbs had gotten us used to closing-up poorly their albums.

But trouble laid ahead as both Ford and Hudson will leave, with Weaver following and forcing Cousins to rebuild the group from scratch with Hawken (Renaissance), Coombes and Cronk coming in as well as Lambert. The end of an era with this album, but the apple had been rotten for a while (my guess was when Wakeman left). The Further The Strawbs keep going, the more they lose their soul and the more they sound passe-partout and like others: sad.

Supertramp - Famous Last Word

Famous First Dowhfall

As with other groups before and after them, the stratospheric success of their BIA album and its grueling promotional tours brought some friction between the songwriters/creators. Most likely spawned by the hit-making count, now heavily favoring Roger, and the choice of singles brought forward to the public, this album was definitely not a worthy successor to BIA, either saleswise or artistically. Prophetically-titled Famous Last Words, it sounds like it was probably (I'm extrapolating, here) the last Supertramp album, until Davies decided to keep going, once Hodgson was leaving for a solo career. It didn't look like it at the time, but the situation would eventually grow to immense almost-Floydian proportions, as the Waters/Gilmour feud hasn't much to envy the Hodgson/Davies one. Surprisingly enough, the guest list is including the Wilson sisters of Heart fame.

A rather poor album, graced with an almost-prophetic tightrope artwork, this album was also the first try at Supertramp dealing with the videoclip fad and the two or three examples they produced for MTV exposure only dealt them a lack of credibility among many core fans, if not alienation. It didn't help either that the main "hit" It's Raining Again was another whiny/w**ker Hodgson melody, like the BIA t/t, Give, Lady and Dreamer, and this time the equally-atrocious C'est Le Bon is in the same area, so that makes two of them. But Davies' attempt at commercial tracks was close to ridicule ? My Kind Of Lady is a bad doo-wop unwilling pastiche (help Frank Zappa ;o)))) and Brown Shoes a clumsy attempt at rock'n roll.

Even the last two numbers can't save this one from sinking, although they are much better than the rest of the album, they only manage to remind you of other albums and makes this one even more horrendous. Indeed, the 6-mins+ Davies-penned Waiting So Long is one of the only track of this album that would find space (as a filler) on any of their previous albums (bar Stamped, of course), but it has its charms, including a certain moodiness (reminding a bit Asylum) and enough musical passages (among which a Hodgson wailing guitar solo) and drama to please progheads. And the Hodgson-penned Don't Leave Me Now (why did you, Roger?) is also a worthy closer (not sure this album deserved one, though), even if it doesn't match its predecessor, but its melancholic ending is pleasant enough.

I suppose that those dumb MTV videoclips did not help me in not-liking this album, despite the last two tracks. Don't get me wrong, this album is not as bad as I might seem to hint at, but compared to previous works, it sucks the bone. Unlike those, this one is depressingly average, which made me get rid of the album quick. No wonder something drastic would happen after such a mediocre album.

BTW, I agree with SteveG that the Pentangle's lost broadcast is very poor.

.