EVEN IN THE QUIETEST MOMENTS ...

I bought this album shortly after Christmas on a whim. I really enjoyed Crime of the Century, but I figured Supertramp probably couldn't do any better and was really just curious about their sound. And at first I thought I was right. I really didn't give it the time of day on its first few plays through, focusing more on the familiar Give a littler bit more than anything else. As time has gone on however I have come to appreciate the rest of the album to the point where it has become one of my most cherished albums.

After Give a little bit comes Lover boy, which is the only track I really haven't found myself warming up to at all. It's witty, but rather dull. Down Stream is a slow but enjoyable Rick Davies crooner of a tune punctuated by Hodgson's staccato piano playing. Babaji and From Now On often get ignored when compared with the two much more powerful pieces which frame them. The first is Hodgson and the second is Davies. Both are a little bit jazzy but Babaji one has a little bit more of an urgent feel compared to the almost complacent From now on. The melancholy closing lines to From now on are excellent. The album's closer Fools Overture is Supertramp at its finest. Having not heard the entire Supertramp discography, I'd say it is an anomaly among their songs. It is as close as they get to symphonic prog in my opinion.

As I am sure most of you noticed; I left one track out: Even in the Quietest Moments. The first time I listened through the album I couldn't even remember listening to it. It was on about my third or fourth time through that I really stopped and paid attention to it. With out a doubt this song is by a very wide margin my favourite Supertramp song. The pace slowly builds over the course of the song. Beginning with the faint chirping of birds and finally coming to a low climax with Roger Hodgson's impassioned vocals before they he is overtaken by the rolling drone of the song and fading out again. I can't say how many times I have listened to it now, but I just can't seem to get enough of it.

On the whole this is Cross-Over prog master piece, on par with ELO's El Dorado.