OPEN THE DOOR

After taking some time off to recover from the misfire that was Hai Hai, Roger Hodgson returned to the familiar territory of art rock with Open The Door. This record is not the triumphant return to the Supertramp sound even though this seems to be the general consensus whenever the album is described. My reasoning is based on the fact that Open The Door lacks the grand sound of the band's work where even some of the big sounding tracks, like the title track or Showdown, still feel quite low key in comparison to Supertramp. Luckily, what this album lacks in arrangements it more than makes up in excellent songwriting and strong melodic sound!

There are plenty of nice melodies and vocal deliveries that will sweep pop music fans right off their feet. Some of my personal favorites are The More I Look, Say Goodbye and For Every Man. Even though I do enjoy these songs quite a bit, they manage to sound more like Cat Stevens than Roger Hodgson - the voice of the legendary art rock band Supertramp. It doesn't necessary diminish the quality of these compositions but I find it hard not to compare these compositions with the much more sufficiently arranged In The Eye Of The Storm. Even the two nods at art rock, on Death And A Zoo and Open The Door, fall slightly short when compared to Lovers In The Wind and Only Because Of You off In The Eye Of The Storm.

It's difficult to dislike Open The Door due to strong songwriting but I still feel slight underwhelmed by the low key arrangements that Roger Hodgson uses all throughout the album. The long list of guest and session musicians does little to remedy this problem. Having said all that, this is still the closest that most fans will get to hearing any new material from Supertramp. This alone will probably make this record a must for fans of Roger's previous endeavors.

**** star songs: The More I Look (4:56) Hungry (4:27) Death And A Zoo (7:32) Love Is A Thousand Times (3:30) Say Goodbye (3:57) Open The Door (8:54) For Every Man (4:44)

*** star songs: Along Came Mary (6:25) Showdown (5:20) The Garden (2:15)