BROTHER WHERE YOU BOUND

It was a sad thing to see Roger Hodgson leave Supertramp. Gone was that balance that was needed to soften up the raspyness of Rick Davies voice and together they were amazing. The fact that they proved to the world that piano rock was alive and well and also needed was amazing. At the time, Supertramp was my favorite band, so it was a sad day when I heard that that side of Supertramp was gone.

I was disappointed in the previous album "Famous Last Words" thinking that for the most part, Rick actually had the best songs and except for a few instances, Roger's songs were very boring. I still had high hopes for this album before I heard it, I loved Cannonball because the uptempo sound that Roger was best at was still there, so I was excited to hear all of it. However, I was very disappointed at first listen and it took me a while to appreciate this album. I bought both this album and Roger Hodgson's debut solo album and arranged them on a cassette so that the lead singers still traded off every other song and that helped this album grow on me. Now I can listen to this album all on it's own and appreciate everything about it.

This album is much more proggy than Roger Hodgson's solo album (even though it's still a favorite of mine also). The songs on this Supertramp album are amazingly written, smart, and in my opinion, among some of their best. Suddenly this album started to make a lot of sense to me, and to tell you the truth, has aged much better than Roger's solo albums. The trend to try to get some of the popularity back with Rick doing all the vocals made the subsequent albums suffer a lot. It makes me wish the song writing team could get back together to get that special mix that they used to have. But, if Supertramp had continued the path that this album had started, I don't know if I would have missed Roger so much.

This is an amazing album and just like most prog masterpieces, it takes a few listens to really appreciate it. So, forget that Roger was ever a member of the band while you listen to this, give it a chance, and maybe you'll see how great it is. I consider this essential because it only proves that even with a major loss in a band, it is still possible to deliver excellent quality music and progressiveness without needing to sell out. 5 stars people, 5 stars.