CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?

Middle-of-the-road rock music with very few endearing features, this album was a dreadful let-down after the good work of 'Crime of the Century'. Rather than letting loose with more elaborate songs, the band rein in their nascent progressive tendencies and become the purveyor of ballads and blues-based numbers. Eschewing the complexity they pursued, and occasionally reached, on their previous album, they replace it here with the sound of mid-70s keyboard-based rock: orchestral window dressing, piano parts galore, exquisite production, the odd white-funk jam and a distressing seriousness not befitting a clever, knowing, tongue-in-cheek art-rock band.

The resulting product is neither complex enough for the prog fan nor catchy enough for the radio. It's so pointedly aimed at the US market the lads might as well have shifted to Los Angeles to record it. Oh, that's right, they did. 'Lady' is quite nice as far as singles go - at least we get the Wurlitzer - though after about a minute I've had enough. 'A Soapbox Opera' is so schmaltzy I have to suppress the gag reflex. Disastrously, the last four tracks of the album are the worst. 'Poor Boy'? A sax solo straight from Easy Street? Oh please. The plaintive 'Just a Normal Day' beggars belief. Poor fare indeed. 'Sister Moonshine' is the only track worth a second listen. Give me THE ELTON JOHN BAND's contemporaneous keyboard-based work any day. Barely two stars for an album rightly ignored in the SUPERTRAMP catalogue.