EVEN IN THE QUIETEST MOMENTS ...

"Even in the Quietest Moments" follows two very successful and enjoyable albums by Supertramp in "Crime of the Century" and "Crisis? What Crisis? Once again the band had managed to create something very melodic and perhaps more progressive than their previous albums. The song lengths are generally around the six minute mark so there is a lot of content to each song, as there always is with Supertramp. Indeed there are some very interesting moments contained here, as well as some very impressive instrumentalism. The album features one particularly great song in "Fool's Overture" which is most notable for the extended instrumental sections.

The album opens with the all-famous song "Give a Little Bit" which carried on the legacy of the earlier "Bloody Well Right" in the avenue of hit singles. The song is a great listen and it "flows" wells through the chord progressions. It is made even more impressive by the Saxes from John Helliwell which gives the song that little bit extra push. "Give a Little Bit" was, as mentioned earlier a hit single in the UK and to a lesser extent the US. It did well to promote the album!

"Lover Boy" is next. It begins with a piano melody before the vocals begin, at which time the whole band comes in. The song changes slightly around the second minute to be slightly reminiscent of the beginning of the song. Throughout this section there can be heard the squawking of the trumpet. The next four or so minutes is predominantly instrumental with some sax spotted here and there.

Next up is the title track "Even in the Quietest Moments" which is the most progressive song on the album save "Fool's Overture. The song starts off with birds singing quietly in the background, before an acoustic guitar and saxophone comes in. Vocals follow, with the acoustic guitar maintaining the underlying melody. I'm very fond of the lyrics, especially the line "don't you let the sun fade away." The middle section of the song is superb and it is a major highlight of the album. Great song all up, my favourite from the album.

"Downstream" is quite a mellow song and the only instrumentation is that of a piano, backing the vocalist. The song is basically just you standard boiler-plate love song I guess, nothing too intriguing or special about it. That said there's nothing wrong with the song either.

"Babagji" begins with vocals accompanied by a piano, before the main melody comes in around the 1:20 mark. It may just be me but the melody reminds me somewhat of Russian folk music. Some of the short instrumental passages are quite interesting and the saxophone and other woodwinds light up the song somewhat.

"From Now on" is next, and it begins with, yes that's right a piano! It is kind of similar to "Downstream", although it is more interesting. Again, it's quite a mellow song but there are a few interesting sections here and there.

Last of all is "Fool's Overture." The first two minutes is a piano solo backed by what seem to be a synthesizer. Around the second minute the growing sound of a crowd of people can be heard shouting with a brass band and bells in the background. Then there are spoken words from who sounds to be Winston Churchill although I may be wrong about that. These words make me believe that the song is based around World War 2. The song then moves into a very intense an interesting song featuring many progressive elements. A brilliant song!

1.Give a Little Bit (4/5) 2.Lover Boy (4/5) 3.Even in the Quietest Moments (5/5) 4.Downstream (3/5) 5.Babaji (4/5) 6.From Now On (3/5) 7.Fool's Overture (5/5) Total = 28 divided by 7 = 4 4 stars

Excellent addition to any prog music collection

All up a very worthy album and save a couple of songs the album is very progressive and should satisfy any prog fan. Seriously some of these songs are very addictive, especially "Even in the Quietest Moments" and "Give a Little Bit." I'd recommend this album to everyone looking for some hooky stuff. 4 stars from me. s