HAI HAI

1987 was a bad year for the left over remnants of Supertramp as Rick Davies released the awful "Free as a Bird" (under the Supertramp moniker that he continued to keep alive) and Roger Hodgson released the uninspired pop of "Hai Hai". The previous albums both artists released close to the same time ("Brother Where You Bound" and "In the Eye of the Storm") were pretty decent and would have made quite an amazing album if the two previously co-leaders of Supertramp had stayed together, and it seemed as if the two artist might be able to be respectable on their own. But, 1987 proved that this was a false hope as this time, both albums would be releases that should be forgotten.

"Hai Hai" follows Hodgson's previous album by continuing on the pop path, but leaving out any indication that much of his previous music at least followed some progressive practices. This album was a half-hearted attempt to go completely commercial. This time there were no long tracks and any of them were playable on the radio, for the most part. Hodgson could have at least tried to make a decent pop album by giving it some heart, but instead, he leaves it out. Sure, the album starts out with some nice bright pop with the first three songs; "Right Place", "My Magazine", and the reggae- influenced "London" tries to find a foot hold in the synth-laden pop of the 80's, and just about gets there, but, all hope is lost when you reach the completely washed-out, assembly-line pop sound of "You Make Me Love You". It seems that Hodgson can't redeem the album after this point, and the rest of the songs just don't seem to create any excitement becoming quite pointless and uninteresting. Not even "Land Ho", a leftover song from the Supertramp days, written by both Hodgson and Davies, can't save this.

Since I had been a long-time Supertramp fan, I was very disappointed after hearing this album the first time. Even after hearing it several times, it fails to make any impression on me, even in a pop-music sense. Hodgson just didn't seem to be sold on these tracks much either. There was no tour for this album either, as Hodgson was involved in an accident a week after it was released, that left him unable to use his hands for quite some time. After this point, I lost all interest in his solo career and didn't take any time to hear any of his following albums for quite some time. I did keep some interest in Rick Davies' Supertramp, but not a lot of hope. However, at least they were able to release one decent album many years later, however Hodgson has failed to impress on his own after this point, as much as I hate to say that. It has been a sad loss to what had been a respectable career previous to this album.