Supertramp Week!

OccultHawk · 07-31-2015, 04:15 PM

I feel like Breakfast led to their immortalization but I guess it's just semantics and perspective.

Trollheart · 07-31-2015, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

I feel like Breakfast led to their immortalization but I guess it's just semantics and perspective.

Well yeah it did, but unlike say Jackson with Thriller, it didn't lead to more successful albums, is what I'm saying. Personally, for me, as I think I've already mentioned, Famous Last Words was the last Supertramp album I really enjoyed. Some Things Never Change was a nice surprise, but the albums around it, pretty terrible all told. When you consider this band produced superb albums like Crime of the Century, Even in the Quietest Moments and of course Breakfast in America, I just feel they tailed off after that. Failed to perhaps capitalise on their fame and the interest in them, though indeed as you say it did make them immortal.

Trollheart · 08-01-2015, 02:31 PM

Since nobody wants to do it, here's the transposition of my review of
Some things never change --- Supertramp --- 1997 (EMI)

Despite the title, for fifteen years it had and has been quite obvious that things have changed, and drastically within the Supertramp fold, leading to a watering-down of their music and a serious waning of their popularity. When guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and co-founder of the band Roger Hodgson left in 1982 after the superlative "Famous last words", the band struggled to cope without his input, his presence, his inspiration. Of course, maybe internally they didn't, but looking at their output from that to this, it's clear that many of the sounds, melodies, ideas and themes that characterised their previous albums --- including such commercially successful ones as "Breakfast in America" and "Even in the quietest moments" --- departed with Hodgson. Although Rick Davies had always co-written and sung with Roger, it was the latter who was known as the voice of Supertramp, since most if not all of the singles have his voice and he always tended to sing on the more "up" songs, while Davies tended to take the more mature, downbeat, serious ones. This of course led to Hodgson being identified with such hits as "Breakfast in America", "The logical song", "It's raining again" and "Dreamer"; he presented the "happy", some might say more poppy side of Supertramp, and people knew the band by his voice.

But on the evidence of their last few albums Supertramp have never managed to recapture that special something that Hodgson brought to the table. "Famous last words" was a tour-de-force, a fitting swansong for the man who had guided Supertramp through twelve years and seven albums, but when the last echoes of "Don't leave me now" had faded away into the distance, there was a numbing sense of finality, and to be honest, had Supertramp disbanded then I would not have been that surprised. Perhaps, in the light of what came next, they should have done so. But no doubt Rick Davies and John Helliwell, who had been there from the early years, believed the band could survive his departure, and unlike Queen without Freddie or Lizzy without Phil, they forged ahead and tried to continue without him.

Without him though their music leaned away from the happy pop sensibilities of their hit albums and returned in the main to the progressive rock, blues/jazz themes of their first two albums, with a lot of the material coming across both as dour and dated. Though they scored a minor hit with "Cannonball" from the first album post-Hodgson, "Brother where you bound", the album did not do well and though it was praised by critics I found it meandering and boring. With only six tracks on it I believe it represented poor value for money too, even if the title track was over sixteen minutes long. The followup, "Free as a bird", was marginally better, but I could still only pick out one or two --- literally --- good tracks off it.

I believe they returned to a measure of their previous glory though with this, their, to date, penultimate album. There's a mixture of the long prog rock wandering songs that tend to crop up on the self-titled debut and some reasonably good rock, a bit of pop and it's almost something for everyone. Of the later (post-Hodgson) albums I'd say it's far and away the best, even if sadly it was followed by one of their worst ever. The album cover is very clever, a typical Supertramp motif that echoes the sleeves of "Breakfast in America" and "Famous last words", as well as "Crime of the century" but is more closely linked to the cover for 1974's "Crisis? What crisis?", with the advent of afternoon tea doggedly persisting despite the fact that the characters appear to be living on the moon. Some things, indeed, never change.

The music had changed though, and even with some quite impressive tracks this is still a long way removed from the heyday of Supertramp; there would be no hit singles from this album --- "Cannonball" has to date been their last incursion on the pop charts --- but it does at least improve on the track numbers, with this album containing twelve in all, compared to the previous nine on "Free as a bird" and the laughable six on "Brother where you bound". It also features the very first solo lead vocals from Mark Hart, who had joined the band in 1986 and had first tried out his singing on one track on the prior album, though in that case he had shared vocals with Davies. It probably isn't the best of signs that the album opens with a nine-minute epic, rather slow and plodding and with a downbeat message, but throughout the album it does brighten up and the style takes a turn back towards the more "happy" Supertramp sound of the seventies and eighties.

The album opens with "It's a hard road", soft digital piano and organ, bass guitar thrumming away and it's almost like a sort of a tuneup, the bass mostly leading the line as the piano chimes away in the background, soft synth laying down a backdrop until the drums cut in and the familiar sax work of John Anthony Helliwell sweeps up Rick Davies' voice in a funky, jazzy song that details the dreams of someone waiting to make it --- "Right now I'm just trying to survive/ Livin' rough, hangin' tough, shapin' up" --- his faith unshakeable that he will break into the big time. Over the last few years Davies has introduced more and more brass into the Supertramp sound, pulling them towards a more jazz area than in the Hodgson era, and it does work but reduces the commercial appeal of the band, making their current music less accessible to those who don't know them.

Davies has of course always shared vocal duties with his departed partner, and we know him from many Supertramp songs that didn't make it as hits, such as "Bloody well right", "Rudy" and even "Goodbye stranger", so it's no wrench to hear him sing here --- he has after all been bossing the vocals for fifteen years now --- and his voice certainly suits the dour almost blind optimism of this song. To be fair, for a song over nine minutes this does not seem stretched or overlong. There's a return of sorts to a pop sound with "You win I lose", those familiar uptempo Supertramp piano lines leading the way, and it's more boppy and even poppy: you could hear Roger singing this. Some great organ too from Mark Hart, and a wonderful little sax solo from Helliwell that evokes the golden years of the band. There's actually a lot of their massive hit "Breakfast in America" in this, then "Get your act together" is a more typical Davies composition, with a sort of half-bitter worldweariness about it, juxtaposed against a swinging uptempo melody with some fine harmonica. Sort of reminds me of "Put on your old brown shoes" from "Famous last words". More trumpets and trombones add to the upbeat tone of the song despite the somewhat sardonic lyric, which could almost be in response to the unswerving, almost naive faith expressed in the opener.

Nice organ and piano on "Live to love you", essentially the first ballad on the album, with what sounds like the ghost of Roger Hodgson in the backing vocals --- guess that must be Hart --- and another fine sax solo from John Helliwell, while the title track goes almost dance/funk with hard cracking drums and jazzy guitar, warbling organ and a tight bassline. Hints that our "new friends" may not be as reliable as they seem in lines like "In some countries far from here/ You know, the ones we used to fear/ Are they just waiting to return to/ Their old evil ways?" and some very acrobatic guitar from Mark Hart mark this out as different to the usual thing we've come to expect from Supertramp. An uptempo song with a bleak message and a warning, and a piano solo from Davies the like of which we really haven't heard since the seminal closer for "Breakfast in America", "Child of vision". Joined by Helliwell's horn then it makes a fine instrumental end to the song, with the sounds of sirens threaded through the tune, as if the point hadn't already been made.

The standout of the album by a long way comes with "Listen to me please", with a boppy, uptempo song that just fizzes with energy and a great fast piano opening, with vocals for the first time on the album shared by Davies and Mark Hart, though the former not surprisingly dominates. It seems to be a cautionary tale about perhaps not putting all your trust in record label executives? "We'll make it easy for you/ Plan evertyhing you do/ Won't have to work very hard/ You'll make it big from the start/ Don't have to take it from me/ Here's a list you can see/ For every one of those names/ I brought them fortune and fame." Or maybe it's just a warning that there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. It's when the chorus gets going though that the song really takes off, and in the fadeout it speeds up and gets quite frenetic. "Sooner or later" then goes back into the slow funk groove of the title track, again driven mostly on piano and organ. It's the first song to feature Mark Hart on solo vocals, and he does really well. He's no Roger Hodgson, but his more falsetto voice contrasts nicely against Davies' baritone, and either way it's nice to hear a different singer. The song itself is no great shakes, though it does feature some nice interplay between Helliwell and Davies.

Blues and honky-tonk merge in "Help me down that road", great piano work from Rick Davies and a soulful vocal performance, then there's almost a sense of gospel to "And the light", one of the other standouts with lush organ and some great guitar, the first really slow song on the album, and in effect the first proper ballad. Brilliant smoky sax solo in it, then "C'est what?" is a return to uptempo poppy music and with a fine piano intro is almost a fast "Bloody well right", though some punching brass adds real teeth to it, as well as Hart's screaming guitar. It's the second-longest track, at over eight minutes, with some jazzy backing vocals, very danceable I would think, and it gives the brass section a real chance to shine. Very happy, very bouncy and again for such a long track doesn't drag or seem overextended. The album then closes on another ballad, the rather beautiful and quite uplifting "Where there's a will".

Opening on solo piano from Davies, the song mixes blues and gospel, with some solid drumming from longtime skinsman Bob Siebenberg, and Davies almost preacher-like on the vocals with some of the most basic truisms of humanity: "I don't know nothin' about this world/ And all its pains/ I can't tell you why we can't/ All just get along/ But after all is said and done/ Gotta keep on keepin' on!" Couldn't have said it better myself Rick! Great chorus on the backing vocals and a fine powerful ending that brings to a close a Supertramp album that stands head and shoulders above the work post-Hodgson, and which they completely failed to repeat on their next, and so far last, outing.

TRACKLISTING

1. It's a hard world
2. You win, I lose
3. Get your act together
4. Live to love you
5. Some things never change
6. Listen to me please
7. Sooner or later
8. Help me down that road
9. And the light
10. C'est what?
11. Where there's a will

There is, weirdly, a "hidden track" which is in fact the other one on which Mark Hart takes lead vocals, but as it's uncertain where it comes in the album --- my version shows it at the beginning, as "track 0" while Wiki lists it as track 10 --- I'm not going to go into it. I can't remember if it's on my original CD or not, but I don't remember it to be honest.

For a brief moment then in the late nineties Supertramp managed to recapture, at least partially, the magic and the excitement that characterised such albums as "Crime of the century", "Breakfast in America" and "Crisis? What crisis?" but the true spirit of the band left along with Roger Hodgson. In many ways, "Some things never change" can be seen as quite an optimistic album, from the blind faith of the opener to the determined insistence of the closer, and there are some really upbeat messages on it. There are of course darker elements, with the title track and yes even the opener can be viewed from a position of negativity and scorn, but this is a well put together album and recalls, probably for the last time in their career, the Supertramp I used to know and love.

Note: Supertramp videos are almost non-existent on the net. Where you can find them they're invariably "not available in your country", so rather than search YouTube fruitlessly I've provided a link here to the full album on Grooveshark. It's worth listening to.
Grooveshark - Free Music Streaming, Online Music

Edit: Grooveshark is now dead, so maybe check Spotify? Or just buy the album...

Oriphiel · 08-01-2015, 04:26 PM

You guys may have noticed, but I've been really busy lately, and haven't had the time to go on MB the past few days. I'll write up and post my review tomorrow. Promise.

Trollheart · 08-02-2015, 03:36 PM

Free as a bird (1987)

I suppose everyone will have their own ideas about Brother Where You Bound, but I have only listened to it once or twice (originally only had it on a cassette tape and was not in any way impressed enough to buy it on CD or even vinyl) and did not like what I heard. For me, with the departure of Roger Hodgson in 1982 the magic was gone, and Supertramp have struggled to regain it ever since. This was their second album since his departure, and shows a continuing slide in quality, with again I think one or maybe two tracks I could point to as being noteworthy, the rest pretty much filler, and bad filler at that.

1. It's alright: It most certainly is not, with a kind of reggae/soul opening, utilising electronic drumbeats and what sounds like timpani, trumpets and not too much of the famous Supertramp piano, it being initially swapped for electronic synth. It is upbeat, but it doesn't really say Supertramp to me; the female backing vocals give it too much of a soul edging into gospel feel and it just doesn't sound right. Good piano solo though, which is always nice to hear.
2. Not the moment: A big sax blast at the beginning raises hopes this might pick up the quality, and it's not the worst song but it's still a long way from what I expect from this band. Sort of a low-key new-wave feel to it, thinking Split Enz or Cutting Crew here. Helliwell does his best, but the song is just not up to it.
3. It doesn't matter: Starts out with some nice rolling piano then harder organ takes over with heavy percussion. Kind of echoes of Hodgson here in the almost Beach Boys-style backing vocals, but it's a poor shadow and I'm just not feeling it.
4. Where I stand: Now this is very new-wave with elements of later Springsteen and Meat Loaf thrown in. And I hate it. With a passion. Sounds like something Kenny Loggins might write if he was really desperate for cash and didn't care about artstic int --- yeah I know: Kenny Loggins caring about artistic integrity? Who am I trying to fool? Anyway, terrible terrible song.
5. Free as a bird: One of the two songs I can stand on this album. Something of a return to form, for a few minutes, with sprinkly piano and a decent vocal, expressive organ and a great hook in the melody. Sax solo from Helliwell and it goes all sort of gospel for the chorus fadeout.
6. I'm beggin' you: Ah, if only all the tracks were like this! Actually gets into my top ten favourite Supertramp songs, this does. A breezy, uptempo song that you would not have been surprised to have found on Breakfast in America or Famous Last Words. Driven on Davies's exuberant piano with a great lead-up to the chorus and then a great chorus itself, a hook to die for and in fact this apparently became a big hit in the clubs! Who woulda thought it? Great brass section really “happys-up” the song, as do the squealy keyboard runs.
7. You never can tell with friends: As if he's said “Okay, you had your two happy tracks, now let's get back to sulking”, Davies inflicts this on us, and to be honest there's no let-up until the end of the album, as he plumbs the depth of mediocrity and certainly makes me wish the album would end. Heavy brass here gives the song a weird forties feel for me then mixes in a kind of seventies soul vibe, neither of which work.
8. Thing for you: More regage, and a sort of preview of the opener to the next album. One of the worst tracks on the album, and it's up against some stiff competition, so that's really saying a lot.
9. An awful thing to waste: Considering how bad most of this album is, why Davies saw fit to end it on a nearly eight-minute track is beyond me, but that's what he decided to do, so we have to suffer through this. Starts off really well, with a piano intro that harks back to the days of Even in the quietest moments, a slow kind of overture I guess, then it jumps into some sort of weird salsa rhythm which reminds me of James Bond and has French vocals? Also seems like Davies suddenly decided he wanted to be Santana. Weird. I find it hard to follow the song and it leaves me with a feeling of beign a little lost at the end of the album.

So, Love or Hate? One really good song and one good song cannot rescue an album, and so it's a clear Hate for this one.

Trollheart · 08-02-2015, 04:42 PM

So I guess that brings Supertramp Week officially to an end. Frownland has, in his own inimitable way, pioneered the idea of going beyond mere chronological boundaries as he pushed Beefheart week into a second week, so in fairness anyone who didn't review and still wants to, you're welcome to do so.

Thanks to all who took part. Great reviews by everyone, and I hope you all enjoyed it. So, what's next?

08-01-2015, 02:31 PM	#33 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Since nobody wants to do it, here's the transposition of my review of Some things never change --- Supertramp --- 1997 (EMI) Despite the title, for fifteen years it had and has been quite obvious that things have changed, and drastically within the Supertramp fold, leading to a watering-down of their music and a serious waning of their popularity. When guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and co-founder of the band Roger Hodgson left in 1982 after the superlative "Famous last words", the band struggled to cope without his input, his presence, his inspiration. Of course, maybe internally they didn't, but looking at their output from that to this, it's clear that many of the sounds, melodies, ideas and themes that characterised their previous albums --- including such commercially successful ones as "Breakfast in America" and "Even in the quietest moments" --- departed with Hodgson. Although Rick Davies had always co-written and sung with Roger, it was the latter who was known as the voice of Supertramp, since most if not all of the singles have his voice and he always tended to sing on the more "up" songs, while Davies tended to take the more mature, downbeat, serious ones. This of course led to Hodgson being identified with such hits as "Breakfast in America", "The logical song", "It's raining again" and "Dreamer"; he presented the "happy", some might say more poppy side of Supertramp, and people knew the band by his voice. But on the evidence of their last few albums Supertramp have never managed to recapture that special something that Hodgson brought to the table. "Famous last words" was a tour-de-force, a fitting swansong for the man who had guided Supertramp through twelve years and seven albums, but when the last echoes of "Don't leave me now" had faded away into the distance, there was a numbing sense of finality, and to be honest, had Supertramp disbanded then I would not have been that surprised. Perhaps, in the light of what came next, they should have done so. But no doubt Rick Davies and John Helliwell, who had been there from the early years, believed the band could survive his departure, and unlike Queen without Freddie or Lizzy without Phil, they forged ahead and tried to continue without him. Without him though their music leaned away from the happy pop sensibilities of their hit albums and returned in the main to the progressive rock, blues/jazz themes of their first two albums, with a lot of the material coming across both as dour and dated. Though they scored a minor hit with "Cannonball" from the first album post-Hodgson, "Brother where you bound", the album did not do well and though it was praised by critics I found it meandering and boring. With only six tracks on it I believe it represented poor value for money too, even if the title track was over sixteen minutes long. The followup, "Free as a bird", was marginally better, but I could still only pick out one or two --- literally --- good tracks off it. I believe they returned to a measure of their previous glory though with this, their, to date, penultimate album. There's a mixture of the long prog rock wandering songs that tend to crop up on the self-titled debut and some reasonably good rock, a bit of pop and it's almost something for everyone. Of the later (post-Hodgson) albums I'd say it's far and away the best, even if sadly it was followed by one of their worst ever. The album cover is very clever, a typical Supertramp motif that echoes the sleeves of "Breakfast in America" and "Famous last words", as well as "Crime of the century" but is more closely linked to the cover for 1974's "Crisis? What crisis?", with the advent of afternoon tea doggedly persisting despite the fact that the characters appear to be living on the moon. Some things, indeed, never change. The music had changed though, and even with some quite impressive tracks this is still a long way removed from the heyday of Supertramp; there would be no hit singles from this album --- "Cannonball" has to date been their last incursion on the pop charts --- but it does at least improve on the track numbers, with this album containing twelve in all, compared to the previous nine on "Free as a bird" and the laughable six on "Brother where you bound". It also features the very first solo lead vocals from Mark Hart, who had joined the band in 1986 and had first tried out his singing on one track on the prior album, though in that case he had shared vocals with Davies. It probably isn't the best of signs that the album opens with a nine-minute epic, rather slow and plodding and with a downbeat message, but throughout the album it does brighten up and the style takes a turn back towards the more "happy" Supertramp sound of the seventies and eighties. The album opens with "It's a hard road", soft digital piano and organ, bass guitar thrumming away and it's almost like a sort of a tuneup, the bass mostly leading the line as the piano chimes away in the background, soft synth laying down a backdrop until the drums cut in and the familiar sax work of John Anthony Helliwell sweeps up Rick Davies' voice in a funky, jazzy song that details the dreams of someone waiting to make it --- "Right now I'm just trying to survive/ Livin' rough, hangin' tough, shapin' up" --- his faith unshakeable that he will break into the big time. Over the last few years Davies has introduced more and more brass into the Supertramp sound, pulling them towards a more jazz area than in the Hodgson era, and it does work but reduces the commercial appeal of the band, making their current music less accessible to those who don't know them. Davies has of course always shared vocal duties with his departed partner, and we know him from many Supertramp songs that didn't make it as hits, such as "Bloody well right", "Rudy" and even "Goodbye stranger", so it's no wrench to hear him sing here --- he has after all been bossing the vocals for fifteen years now --- and his voice certainly suits the dour almost blind optimism of this song. To be fair, for a song over nine minutes this does not seem stretched or overlong. There's a return of sorts to a pop sound with "You win I lose", those familiar uptempo Supertramp piano lines leading the way, and it's more boppy and even poppy: you could hear Roger singing this. Some great organ too from Mark Hart, and a wonderful little sax solo from Helliwell that evokes the golden years of the band. There's actually a lot of their massive hit "Breakfast in America" in this, then "Get your act together" is a more typical Davies composition, with a sort of half-bitter worldweariness about it, juxtaposed against a swinging uptempo melody with some fine harmonica. Sort of reminds me of "Put on your old brown shoes" from "Famous last words". More trumpets and trombones add to the upbeat tone of the song despite the somewhat sardonic lyric, which could almost be in response to the unswerving, almost naive faith expressed in the opener. Nice organ and piano on "Live to love you", essentially the first ballad on the album, with what sounds like the ghost of Roger Hodgson in the backing vocals --- guess that must be Hart --- and another fine sax solo from John Helliwell, while the title track goes almost dance/funk with hard cracking drums and jazzy guitar, warbling organ and a tight bassline. Hints that our "new friends" may not be as reliable as they seem in lines like "In some countries far from here/ You know, the ones we used to fear/ Are they just waiting to return to/ Their old evil ways?" and some very acrobatic guitar from Mark Hart mark this out as different to the usual thing we've come to expect from Supertramp. An uptempo song with a bleak message and a warning, and a piano solo from Davies the like of which we really haven't heard since the seminal closer for "Breakfast in America", "Child of vision". Joined by Helliwell's horn then it makes a fine instrumental end to the song, with the sounds of sirens threaded through the tune, as if the point hadn't already been made. The standout of the album by a long way comes with "Listen to me please", with a boppy, uptempo song that just fizzes with energy and a great fast piano opening, with vocals for the first time on the album shared by Davies and Mark Hart, though the former not surprisingly dominates. It seems to be a cautionary tale about perhaps not putting all your trust in record label executives? "We'll make it easy for you/ Plan evertyhing you do/ Won't have to work very hard/ You'll make it big from the start/ Don't have to take it from me/ Here's a list you can see/ For every one of those names/ I brought them fortune and fame." Or maybe it's just a warning that there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. It's when the chorus gets going though that the song really takes off, and in the fadeout it speeds up and gets quite frenetic. "Sooner or later" then goes back into the slow funk groove of the title track, again driven mostly on piano and organ. It's the first song to feature Mark Hart on solo vocals, and he does really well. He's no Roger Hodgson, but his more falsetto voice contrasts nicely against Davies' baritone, and either way it's nice to hear a different singer. The song itself is no great shakes, though it does feature some nice interplay between Helliwell and Davies. Blues and honky-tonk merge in "Help me down that road", great piano work from Rick Davies and a soulful vocal performance, then there's almost a sense of gospel to "And the light", one of the other standouts with lush organ and some great guitar, the first really slow song on the album, and in effect the first proper ballad. Brilliant smoky sax solo in it, then "C'est what?" is a return to uptempo poppy music and with a fine piano intro is almost a fast "Bloody well right", though some punching brass adds real teeth to it, as well as Hart's screaming guitar. It's the second-longest track, at over eight minutes, with some jazzy backing vocals, very danceable I would think, and it gives the brass section a real chance to shine. Very happy, very bouncy and again for such a long track doesn't drag or seem overextended. The album then closes on another ballad, the rather beautiful and quite uplifting "Where there's a will". Opening on solo piano from Davies, the song mixes blues and gospel, with some solid drumming from longtime skinsman Bob Siebenberg, and Davies almost preacher-like on the vocals with some of the most basic truisms of humanity: "I don't know nothin' about this world/ And all its pains/ I can't tell you why we can't/ All just get along/ But after all is said and done/ Gotta keep on keepin' on!" Couldn't have said it better myself Rick! Great chorus on the backing vocals and a fine powerful ending that brings to a close a Supertramp album that stands head and shoulders above the work post-Hodgson, and which they completely failed to repeat on their next, and so far last, outing. TRACKLISTING 1. It's a hard world 2. You win, I lose 3. Get your act together 4. Live to love you 5. Some things never change 6. Listen to me please 7. Sooner or later 8. Help me down that road 9. And the light 10. C'est what? 11. Where there's a will There is, weirdly, a "hidden track" which is in fact the other one on which Mark Hart takes lead vocals, but as it's uncertain where it comes in the album --- my version shows it at the beginning, as "track 0" while Wiki lists it as track 10 --- I'm not going to go into it. I can't remember if it's on my original CD or not, but I don't remember it to be honest. For a brief moment then in the late nineties Supertramp managed to recapture, at least partially, the magic and the excitement that characterised such albums as "Crime of the century", "Breakfast in America" and "Crisis? What crisis?" but the true spirit of the band left along with Roger Hodgson. In many ways, "Some things never change" can be seen as quite an optimistic album, from the blind faith of the opener to the determined insistence of the closer, and there are some really upbeat messages on it. There are of course darker elements, with the title track and yes even the opener can be viewed from a position of negativity and scorn, but this is a well put together album and recalls, probably for the last time in their career, the Supertramp I used to know and love. Note: Supertramp videos are almost non-existent on the net. Where you can find them they're invariably "not available in your country", so rather than search YouTube fruitlessly I've provided a link here to the full album on Grooveshark. It's worth listening to. Grooveshark - Free Music Streaming, Online Music Edit: Grooveshark is now dead, so maybe check Spotify? Or just buy the album... __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 08-01-2015 at 02:41 PM.

08-01-2015, 04:26 PM	#34 (permalink)
Oriphiel Ask me how! Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: The States Posts: 5,355	You guys may have noticed, but I've been really busy lately, and haven't had the time to go on MB the past few days. I'll write up and post my review tomorrow. Promise. __________________ ---------------------- \|---Mic's Albums---\| ---------------------- ----------------------------- \|---Deafbox Industries---\| -----------------------------

08-02-2015, 03:36 PM	#35 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Free as a bird (1987) I suppose everyone will have their own ideas about Brother Where You Bound, but I have only listened to it once or twice (originally only had it on a cassette tape and was not in any way impressed enough to buy it on CD or even vinyl) and did not like what I heard. For me, with the departure of Roger Hodgson in 1982 the magic was gone, and Supertramp have struggled to regain it ever since. This was their second album since his departure, and shows a continuing slide in quality, with again I think one or maybe two tracks I could point to as being noteworthy, the rest pretty much filler, and bad filler at that. 1. It's alright: It most certainly is not, with a kind of reggae/soul opening, utilising electronic drumbeats and what sounds like timpani, trumpets and not too much of the famous Supertramp piano, it being initially swapped for electronic synth. It is upbeat, but it doesn't really say Supertramp to me; the female backing vocals give it too much of a soul edging into gospel feel and it just doesn't sound right. Good piano solo though, which is always nice to hear. 2. Not the moment: A big sax blast at the beginning raises hopes this might pick up the quality, and it's not the worst song but it's still a long way from what I expect from this band. Sort of a low-key new-wave feel to it, thinking Split Enz or Cutting Crew here. Helliwell does his best, but the song is just not up to it. 3. It doesn't matter: Starts out with some nice rolling piano then harder organ takes over with heavy percussion. Kind of echoes of Hodgson here in the almost Beach Boys-style backing vocals, but it's a poor shadow and I'm just not feeling it. 4. Where I stand: Now this is very new-wave with elements of later Springsteen and Meat Loaf thrown in. And I hate it. With a passion. Sounds like something Kenny Loggins might write if he was really desperate for cash and didn't care about artstic int --- yeah I know: Kenny Loggins caring about artistic integrity? Who am I trying to fool? Anyway, terrible terrible song. 5. Free as a bird: One of the two songs I can stand on this album. Something of a return to form, for a few minutes, with sprinkly piano and a decent vocal, expressive organ and a great hook in the melody. Sax solo from Helliwell and it goes all sort of gospel for the chorus fadeout. 6. I'm beggin' you: Ah, if only all the tracks were like this! Actually gets into my top ten favourite Supertramp songs, this does. A breezy, uptempo song that you would not have been surprised to have found on Breakfast in America or Famous Last Words. Driven on Davies's exuberant piano with a great lead-up to the chorus and then a great chorus itself, a hook to die for and in fact this apparently became a big hit in the clubs! Who woulda thought it? Great brass section really “happys-up” the song, as do the squealy keyboard runs. 7. You never can tell with friends: As if he's said “Okay, you had your two happy tracks, now let's get back to sulking”, Davies inflicts this on us, and to be honest there's no let-up until the end of the album, as he plumbs the depth of mediocrity and certainly makes me wish the album would end. Heavy brass here gives the song a weird forties feel for me then mixes in a kind of seventies soul vibe, neither of which work. 8. Thing for you: More regage, and a sort of preview of the opener to the next album. One of the worst tracks on the album, and it's up against some stiff competition, so that's really saying a lot. 9. An awful thing to waste: Considering how bad most of this album is, why Davies saw fit to end it on a nearly eight-minute track is beyond me, but that's what he decided to do, so we have to suffer through this. Starts off really well, with a piano intro that harks back to the days of Even in the quietest moments, a slow kind of overture I guess, then it jumps into some sort of weird salsa rhythm which reminds me of James Bond and has French vocals? Also seems like Davies suddenly decided he wanted to be Santana. Weird. I find it hard to follow the song and it leaves me with a feeling of beign a little lost at the end of the album. So, Love or Hate? One really good song and one good song cannot rescue an album, and so it's a clear Hate for this one. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

08-02-2015, 04:42 PM	#36 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Famous Last Words? So I guess that brings Supertramp Week officially to an end. Frownland has, in his own inimitable way, pioneered the idea of going beyond mere chronological boundaries as he pushed Beefheart week into a second week, so in fairness anyone who didn't review and still wants to, you're welcome to do so. Thanks to all who took part. Great reviews by everyone, and I hope you all enjoyed it. So, what's next? __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

07-31-2015, 04:15 PM	#31 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,033	I feel like Breakfast led to their immortalization but I guess it's just semantics and perspective.