EVEN IN THE QUIETEST MOMENTS ...

After the transitional Crisis? What Crisis?, Supertramp went back to the drawing board and came up with Even In the Quietest Moments, which is a bit closer to the worthy followup to Crime of the Century that its predecessor should have been. That isn't to say the band simply turned their backs on the commercially-leaning art rock trajectory they'd added to their music in Crisis - just that they were able to blend it with the soft prog style of Crime much more adeptly this time around, finding a balance which was missing from Crisis. From Give a Little Bit - possibly the poppiest song on the album, but also one of the most moving - to Fool's Overture, which is just as emotionally powerful but turns the prog crank up to Crime of the Century levels, the album presents slickly produced track after slickly produced track, and each one is a carefully polished pop-prog number. Not quite a full-on masterpiece, but another strong addition to the Supertramp discography nonetheless, though at the same time the often saccharine and syrupy tone tends to make me miss the extra bite that Crime of the Century offered.