EVEN IN THE QUIETEST MOMENTS ...

This album was surprisingly bland to me, with good, varied compositions but repetitive textures and a mood that treads the line between calm and boring. This is the point where I begin to prefer Davies to Hodgson, whose inventiveness is declining into either moody pop- rock or spiritual acoustic-ing, both of which appear on this album (but nothing in the likes of 'Dreamer' or 'School'). The fun side of Supertramp has gone, but the serious music doesn't deliver what it ought to... well, Davies does.

The single 'Give a Little Bit' is perhaps a happy song on the album, but it is only interesting for a few listens until it sickens you. 'Lover Boy' has some cooler themes and dramatically re-appears after a fade out, but is possibly too long with only a couple of different sections. The title track is a winner, capturing the mood that this album probably intended to create. It builds into a thick, pounding crescendo, and is a very mature composition. The first side closes with the melancholy 'Downstream', a beatiful piano ballad and easily Davies' most emotional vocal performance. 'Babaji' sounds like it would be similar to the title track from its name, but it is a dull rocker that, on this album, suffers most of all from the unexplained lack of Wurlitzer electric piano. 'From Now on' has a continental, jazzy feel, led by piano and fairly progressive with different themes telling a sad story. This song also fits the album's style, but that only makes three of six so far.

The much talked-about (in prog circles) 'Fool's Overture' is a bit of an experiment. The introduction has a lot of emotive moments and build up tension with a sampled Churchill speech, but the song turns into a synth-rocker and juxtaposes whatever mood it was aiming for. The synthesizers (which appear a few times on this album but very little on previous ones) are a bit too disco for me; perhaps Supertramp should have stuck to their trademark electric pianos. 'Fool's Overture' has it's moments but isn't particularly cohesive as an extended work, maybe given the expectations, it is this song that has dissapointed me the most (it's still pretty good!).

So, despite an above-average length, this album feels rather short due to it's consistent lack of development in instruments and song-structures. Helliwell's sax is not as present as it used to be, replaced by poorly-programmed synths. But more importantly, 5 of the 7 songs are good compositions with nice themes, just not quite as amazing as people have told me. 'Crime of the Century' has deservedly recieved more praise, but this album is potentially the band's second best.