EVEN IN THE QUIETEST MOMENTS ...

After the deceiving Crisis album, the quintet regrouped in America and recorded this album in LA and most of you know the legend of the piano artwork gracing its cover. They needed to confirm the Century success and this album would break them big time in the US and while not as successful as Crime, it sent Supertramp in the major leagues.This album is another fine moment for bassist Dougie Thompson and confirms he is one of Supertramp's strength.

Aside the mega-selling but completely unrepresentative single that opens the album, the rest of the tracks are not quite as poppish and certainly have none of those whiny wanker melodies that the otherwise outstanding songwriter Roger Hodgson gives once an album, here with Give A Little Bit. Definitely not my fave and my dislike is enhanced by the over-exposure of this track. Often overlooked by fans, but so cynically Trampish, Loverboy is an excellent Davies track, where there are few excellent sound dynamics, even if the reprise at the end is maybe overstaying its welcome. But this opening side's apex is the absolutely marvellous title track with its guitar arpeggio and clarinet leading Hodgson's plaintive vocals into a slow but inexorable crescendo midway through with Davies and Helliwell underlining Roger's slow wailings. A poignant tune. Closing up the A-side is a moving Downstream, where Davies remains on the piano and handles it solo. This where one can see where Hodgson had it easier as he could compose both on piano and guitar.

The flipside opens on the charming Babaji, a tune that seems to hint at a guru, but aside Thompson's almost hypnotizing bass riff, it is a genteel and inoffensive track that epitomizes the group's typical song. The great Davies-penned From Now On is a fine moody piece, but as with Loverboy, unnecessarily long, especially with that never-ending sing-along finale. But of course you guys are waiting for that epic Fools Overture, depicting the hard times of the UK during the WW2. An awesome spine-chilling, goose bumps-growing song, where the band paid a full symphonic orchestra in the studio, only to send them home after their warm-up; all they needed was just these few minutes of tuning, to end the track and the album in a frighteningly beautiful manner.

Definitely worth owning for the title track and the finale but there is much more than those two numbers. From the first exhilarating arpeggios of guitar of Quietest Moments until the very last symphonic orchestra musician warm up tuning in of Fool's Overture so much has happened on here and so many different moods explored that this leaves the listener speechless. Only Give A Little (with this wanker plaintive vocals) irks me as this has no place in here. But then again this is the song that broke them internationally, so who am I to say that?

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