CRIME OF THE CENTURY

Unambiguously the best Supertamp record along with/after Breakfast In America. A lot of real progressive masterpieces can be found here. The opener 'School', 'Hide In Your Shell', the epic 'Rudy', 'If Everyone Was Listening', especially the closing 'Crime Of The Century' are among the best pieces of progressive music ever. The album's two most accessible tracks, 'Bloody Well Right' and 'Dreamer' are somewhat less inspiring in musical terms but it doesn't deduct from the quality of this record.

Supertramp's brand of prog rock always tended towards the slicker, more commercial, less idiosyncratic end of the pool, akin to post-Dark Side Pink Floyd, or the Alan Parsons Project, or Kayak. I don't think this is a bad thing by any means- but I think it means that Supertramp does better commercially in a progressive pop mold than when they're trying to do more ambitious prog stuff. The best songs on this album (Bloody Well Right, Dreamer) are, probably not coincidentally, the poppiest; and the most forgotten about(Hide in Your Shell, Rudy) are the most ambitious: big sweeping structurally ambitious mini-suites which come across to some as dull mid-tempo ballads at heart. 4.0

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