CRIME OF THE CENTURY

Growing up I had the good fortune of having a father not only being a musician but also in possession of a quite extensive music collection, I was exposed to A LOT of really good music. Going through his collection one day in my early teenage years I came across a single with a group called Supertramp. The single contained two songs - "School" and "Bloody well right". I fell for the first track at an instant and no sooner than I had listened to that song over and over again I discovered the flip side and was equally amazed at what I heard. Since then Supertramp and "Crime of the century" has followed me along life's path, always making me feel at home and thrilled with it's magical contents.

It is, in fact, a question of everything coming together, which it sometimes do every 1000 years or so. The stars are aligned, there is water in the well and the tax return makes you giggle with contentment. When Supertramp sat down and recorded this amazingly brilliant piece of vinyl everything came in place. I cannot stress just how brilliant an album this is. From the very beginning of the first second to the last, trembling one the music is perfect in every sense: the lyrics, the vocals, the instrumentation, the order of the songs, the cover and even the price tag is flawless.

I will not go into the tracks one by ne, since there is no point when every song is as perfect as it is humanly (or outworldly) possible. There is jazz rock in the vein of Chicago about the same time but proggier, more tender and harder than they were. The music is a perfect mix of everything you could imagine in the world of prog. I'd say there is more jazz rock than actual prog but then again what does that mean? I honestly don't know. Supertramp is not Yes, if that's anything to go by, but the structures of several songs are clearly progressive.

The point is, however, that the album "Crime of the century" is flawless. I could go on about it's qualities forever, raving like a mad man but I won't. I'll end this review before I fall to pieces with excitement and beg you, if you haven't already, to listen to the thing and hopefully you'll get my drift, my point and justmaybe share my obsession with it. Supertramp were never better than this and frankly I wonder if music ever was. I know I'm raving but that's the beauty of it all, you're allowed to when music is as brilliantly conceived as this. I guess the divine forces of our universe had a hand in the making. They had to have been.