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Supertramp - Famous Last Words CD (album) cover

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

Supertramp

 

Crossover Prog

3.20 | 406 ratings

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Where_Nobody_knows
4 stars Supertramp's follow up to 1979's "Breakfast in America" paints a sonic portrait of a fractured whole. The band responsible for cracking the insulated egg of the US charts, striking gold with three massive hit songs, finds itself facing a crisis. The creative duo of Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson's already strained relationshipwas wearing increasingly thinner. The two living in different worlds both creatively and geographically, forced the band into three parts; Davies, Hodgson, and the band. Both Hodgson and Davies recoded their contributions seperate from eachother. It didn't help either, that the band had just completed a grueling tour consisting of 120 concerts in 9 months. Nevertheless, the road weary band would head to the studio to capitalize on their momentum. The result was "...famous last words..."

The album is simultaneously permiated with a melancholy mood, and a bittersweet optimism. Every song is of high quality, no doubt, and every song has something to say. Most importantly, each song is given room to breath. No two sound alike. It is the album's greatest strength, and also it's greatest weakness. The biggest problem is that the album doesn't have an overarching sound or a cohesive theme running through it. You don't really need either to have a great album, but it doesn't hurt. It has it's share of jarring moments. It jumps from a song about isolation and identity( Know who you are), to an upbeat love song (My kind of lady) at a brisk pace. This is mostly due to the two songwriting members of the band being isolated from one another both creatively and literally. It just feels a bit disjointed.

All in all, the production is superb. The songs are all well written. All the elments that make Supertramp great are there, and not there, all at once. Say what you will about the album, it has it's flaws. It is disjointed at times, grandiose at others. Unabashedly optimistic and introspective and moody. Yet, it is a well polished piece of work all around.

The highlights of the album are the opener, "Crazy", "Bonnie", "It's raining again", "My kind of lady" and "Ive been waiting so long". The rest of the album is great, just my personal choices of highlights.

Where_Nobody_knows | 4/5 |

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