CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?

The fourth album from Supertramp, released in 1975, is a pretty good one. It starts out with the short but sweet 'Easy Does It', featuring (in my opinion) Roger Hodgson's best vocals. I love the way it starts out with someone walking down the street, whistling and then Hodgson starts singing....too bad it's only 2 minutes long. Next is the country- style 'Sister Moonshine' which along with the first and final track, is the highlight of the album. Another great vocal track from Roger. However, this album is brought down by the Rick Davies tracks. 'Aint Nobody But Me' is okay, but the saxophone solo is out of place, and the song feels uneven. 'A Soap Opera' is another great song with, again, exceptional vocal delivery from Mr. Hodgson along with piano and ochestral arrangements joining towards the end. 'Another Man's Women' is out of place, but does feature a good instrumental jam to close out. Then there is the jazzy 'Lady' which is a good track, but I just don't like jazzy/pop songs. 'Poor Boy' is Davies best song on the record, and features excellent lyrics and is another jazzy song (but works much better with Davies voice). 'Just a Normal Day' is another "good" song using vocal performances from both Rick and Roger. 'The Meaning' has great lyrics and again strong vocals, but suffers from that annoying repeating "If you know what the meaning is......". The album closes with one of the top three slower songs the Tramps ever did. Roger's emotional delivery along with that simple guitar riff work awesomely. This along with the solo from John Helliwell (What instument is that?) that ends the album almost (or even does) bring a tear to your eye. Overall a pretty good album that shows the band moving in a more pop oriented direction. I just think Supertramp's albums always suffered because Rick and Roger always alternated vocals on every other track (for the most part)-which takes away from the album as a whole, because it doesn't flow as well. But anyway, I give it 3.5 stars out of 5 (which is quite good coming from myself)-great things would come for the Tramps in the future.