SLOW MOTION

Another excellent album from Supertramp. Five years after Somethings Never Change ,Rick Davies moved to New York from his longtime stablishment of LA and created Slow Motion. Again if you like jazz and swing with the Supertramp stamp of sound then this album will not disappoint.I saw this album played live in Leicester UK in 2002 and it was great to see how tightly these guys played together. Highlights on this maturely delivered album are the title track, a real burner,' Broken Hearted', ' 10th Avenue Breakdown' - great jamming on here, great keyboards from RD, ' Sting In The Tail' for swing and the awesome ' Dead Man's Blues'. I hope Supertramp continue in this direction. I have to admit that as I get older the more appealing this latest sound from Supertramp becomes. Revisit them if you wrote them off after Free As A Bird and you will see what I mean. A bit like Steely Dan or a good vintage red wine that improves with age.

Supertramp should have already called it quit after their good "Brother Where You Bound" in 1985. By doing so, they would have ended on a positive note. But, alas they kept going on and produced one weak album ("Some Things Never Change") and their two poorest ones : "Free As A Bird" and "Slow Motion".

The title track can make illusion. Catchy melody, good piano : a song like they have produced a lot during their wonderful journey. It is the highlight of this work. There won't be any other one.

What comes next are, at best, some easy listening music like "Little by Little" : a little funky tune but not too bad compared to what comes next.

"Broken Hearted" seems to come from the Jerry Lee Lewis repertoire. An attempt to good old rock'n' roll (even revival). One could cope with this while going out at a local party where you have an unknown band on stage playing some live music. By no means I expect this from 'Tramp.

"Over You" is rather horrifying : a transparent jazzy ballad. It's OK when you're dining in a chic hotel with a "lobby band" playing such stuff. Again not Supertramp.

"Tenth Avenue Breakdown" is a jazzy track with more flavour. But its lenght (almost nine minutes) makes it rather dull and repetitive after one third of it.

Two poor bluesy songs to follow : " A Sting in the Tail" and "Bee in Your Bonnet" : I can't tell which one is worse. Let's call it a draw !

"Goldrush" although released on this album has been in the Supertramp repertoire since the very early seventies and was used as a live opener before School. It is the second average number of this album.

Dreadful long and bluesy/jazzy track as closing number. Not a turnpoint in the music history I must say.

As I initially wrote : this is definitely another album too much for the 'Tramp. One little star.

At the time this album was released in 2002, I visited SUPERTRAMP`s Official Website. There was the announcement of the release of this album, with some quotes from Rick Davies (not available anymore in that website, an official website which I don`t like very much). I remember that Davies said in those quotes that this album was really planned by him as an album recorded with the band, with him writing all the songs (with the exception of 'Gold Rush', with was written with guitarist Richard Palmer-James in 1970, an old song that the original line-up of the band played in concert in the early seventies and which was not previously recorded for an album by the band), doing all the arrangements, and also singing all the lead vocals. In previous studio albums recorded without Roger Hodgson (in 'Free as a Bird' from 1987, and in 'Some Things Never Change' from 1997) he gave a chance to Mark Hart to collaborate a bit in the songwriting and also to sing some lead vocals. But for 'Slow Motion' Davies wanted to do all by himself, with the other members of the band only recording the songs and being directed by him. He only let Hart and recording engineer Jay Messina to co-produce the album with him. The album was recorded in Los Angeles and in New York, with Davies, who lived in Los Angeles since the mid-seventies, going to live to New York during the recording of this album.

At that time, in 2002, I was not very interested to listen to this album, which with Davies now almost directing everything, being the only remaining original member of the band and the founder of the band, I considered more as a solo album and not as a 'real' album by SUPERTRAMP. Anyway, recently I finally decided to listen to this album. This album was recorded with the same line-up of the band which recorded the 'It Was the Best of Times' live album in 1997 and which was released until 1999 (Rick Davies, John Helliwell, Bob Siebenberg, Mark Hart, Jesse Siebenberg, Carl Verheyen, Cliff Hugo, Lee Thornburg).

I also remember that some years ago I read in an interview done with John Helliwell on which he said that Davies really planned this album to be the last album which the band was going to record. The band went to tour for this album in 2002, and after this, there was silence from the band until 2010, when the band (with some changes in the line-up, with Hart not being in the band, and with the addition of two new members, and with some rumors of Roger Hodgson re-joining the band to play some concerts, a thing that did not happen) did their 40th anniversary tour. After that, there was silence again for five years, until some months ago in this year there was the announcement of a new tour, with Hart again in the band. Unfortunately, the tour was recently canceled due to Davies being ill with multiple myeloma and with him being treated for this illness. I hope that he is going to recover from this illness.

Despite this album was not really done as a real collaboration from Davies with all the other members of the band, I think that being their last studio album is really good. Anyway, Davies had the desire to direct the band in all things to record this album, and he did a very good job, with the other members of the band also playing the songs very well. But it really sounds to me that at least Davies gave them some freedom to play their solos. This album as a whole is an enjoyable mixture of Pop Rock songs with some Big Band, Jazz, Blues and Progressive Rock influences. The playing from all the members of the band is very good and very professional. I particularly like more the songs 'Slow Motion', 'Little by Little', 'Broken Hearted', 'Over You' (with very good Big Band / Jazz brass arrangements, and a fifties-like Rock and Roll piano arrangement, similar in musical style to the song 'My Kind of Lady' from their ''famous last words'' album from 1982 ), and 'Gold Rush' (which without doubt sounds to me like an old song from the band, a thing which it really is, being originally composed in 1970).

I like the cover design very much, which still is very relevant to today`s 'modern life'.

In 2002, Supertramp, again without Hodgson, tried one more time to make a studio album. "Slow Motion" would be that album, and it would see a turn to a more smooth and jazzy groove. After the album "Brother Where You Bound", the band was having problems getting both the sales back up and the public interested in new music. "Free as a Bird" took a turn to a commercial and more digital sound, "Some Things Never Change" saw Davies try to bring back the old sound of the band again, and recruited another lead singer to try to bring in more variety to the sound, and, even though it was a better album, it still wasn't up to the standards of their more successful years, and at times seemed to be trying to hard to copy some of their more popular songs. Changing to a more relaxed and smooth sound was a definite improvement, and that is what happened with "Slow Motion".

Singer Mark Hart returned for this album, and again his efforts are not as up front as Davies, in fact he is used more as a background singer here, but on this album that is okay because the music is much more enjoyable, upbeat, and yet relaxed. The opener "Slow Motion" just flows along so well and is the best song that the band has put out since "Brother Where You Bound", and that upbeat and catchy rhythm continues with the following 2 tracks. "Over You" shows the return of the band trying new styles and giving their unique spin on it. This track sounds like a slow doo-wop style track with a hard beat, not unlike the older track "My Kind of Lady" from the album "Famous Last Words", but even better, with a nice sax hook and even a jazz guitar towards the end of the track. This is more like the Supertramp we used to love, and the track doesn't sound forced.

The move towards a more "Steely Dan" style of jazz/rock fusion really fits this incarnation of Supertramp quite well, and it would seem that the band was feeling more like themselves again, and the more forward use of improvised trumpets and saxes only adds to the enjoyment of the album. This really works on the track "Tenth Avenue Breakdown", a track that nears the 10 minute mark. This song brings together the peppy and bouncy rhythm of drums and keyboards and the hooks of the brass, especially in the last half of the track, and this brings about memories of "Child of Vision" from "Breakfast in America" when the long instrumental section starts, and then even adds in a guitar solo. "A Sting in the Tail" goes for a blues style and brings back the haunting harmonica that we've heard used before in more popular Supertramp tracks. The sexy sax and trumpet solo is the perfect instrumental break for this track.

They even include an older song on this album from way back before "Crime of the Century" that never got put on an album, that track is "Goldrush" which was used to open their concerts before CotC was released. The last track "Dead Man Blues" is another highlight for the album, with a bit more guitar added in than what we are used to in the classic Supertramp sound, and the track again has the slow bluesy, yet catchy style that really works well on this album.

This would end up being the last studio album for Supertramp, which is a shame because it seemed they were getting their stride back even without Hodgson, but the sales just weren't there anymore. Davies and Hodgson made attempts to work together again, and there were some close calls, but in the end, one or the other would back off. After the release of this album, the band broke up again, but they have returned in various incarnations with Davies in the lead throughout the years, but just for touring purposes. In more recent years, Davies has had health problems, but he has apparently recovered from these issues and has been touring again, but no plans for new albums are currently in the works.

I have no problems playing this album often along with the more classic Supertramp albums as I find it quite enjoyable, and the best of the band's final three albums. The more I hear it, the more I love it, and, even though there isn't a lot of progressive style here, it reminds me more of their classic years even if it has more of a jazz edge to it. On the first few listens, I would have only considered it a "good" album, but it has really grown on me in a good way, where the two albums before this one never really caught my interest as much. This one has become a favorite, still a notch below their best albums, but still better than "Famous Last Words" which was the last album with Hodgson. I can easily give this 4 stars, but it took some time for me to really appreciate it, even though right from the beginning, I knew it was better than anything they had done for a while. It's an underrated and mostly ignored album which should actually get more attention than what it has. It just had the misfortune of following after two weaker albums. But it will have you wishing Supertramp would come back again.