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General => Reviews => Topic started by: Nick on December 22, 2009, 07:18:22 PM
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Reviewed By: Nicholas R. Andreas
Artist: Supertramp
Album: Crime of the Century
Genre: Classic Rock
Year of Release: 1974
On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Crime-Century-Supertramp/dp/B000068FY0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1260751156&sr=8-1
Not everyone will agree that Supertramp was, in any typical way, a classic prog band, however I’d say that Crime of the Century was one of the finest progressive releases of the entire 1970’s. While others tend to focus on releases like Red, or Selling England by the Pound, I tend to think that Supertramp produced a record superior to either of those.
The opening track, “School”, shows keyboardist Richard Davies showing very early on that while other keyboardists at the time were experimenting with new technologies and sounds, he was busy simply taking a classic piano song to an entirely new level within a rock song. Likewise, in the next track, “Bloody Well Right” they band documents how to make something mainstream yet respectable, and John Helliwell plays the song out with a magnificent saxophone solo. John continues his exceptional playing through the next track, “Hide in Your Shell”. While the band through these first three tracks have not done anything individually groundbreaking I can’t help but call the song-writing progressive in the sense that it builds on available ideas in a way that is unique to the band. Although the vocals provided by Roger Hodgson and Richard Davies certainly stand out, there is something about the music that specifically stands out as Supertramp.
This is perhaps most apparent on the track “Asylum”. A beautiful and surreal track, “Asylum” documents how well Supertramp can use piano and string arrangements in their music. Although fans have debated whether or not Crime of the Century is a true concept album, buy the start of the classic track “Dreamer”, one could easily begin to believe that it is, simply because of how well all the music seems to flow, how it seems to connect and build.
“Dreamer” and the two tracks that follow continue to exhibit the excellent songwriting that is in abundance on the record, until finally the album comes to an amazing conclusion with the albums self-titled track. Beginning with a beautiful lyrical section the song then features a simple but effective guitar “solo” followed by an amazing album outro that ranks among my favorites of all time, despite its relative simplicity. It’s not hard to conceptualize, it’s not fast paced, it doesn’t require a music degree to understand, but it does capture the emotion of the album perfectly, in a way that I personally see as progressive, even if others do not.
As soon as an album has a few popular singles people seem to have a problem calling it prog. However, despite my insistence that Crime of the Century is a progressive release, what’s truly important is how good the album is. Call it classic rock, pop, or prog, a rose by any other name will still smell sweet, and this album will still be amazing, no matter how you classify it.
Nick’s Rating: 9.5/10
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CotC is a great, great record.
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CotC is a great, great record.
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As soon as an album has a few popular singles people seem to have a problem calling it prog.
*guilty as charged*
Of course I'm very familiar with their radio hits. That said, I think I'll be checking into this album real soon.
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Is it a concept album, too?
:neverusethis:
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I have yet to check out a full Supertramp album but the stupid classic rock station in Raleigh plays a few of their hits far too often for me to enjoy them anymore. Thankfully, I only hear them during the summer when I'm lifeguarding, so in order to keep myself from dumping a toaster into the pool, I have to shield myself from mass listenings of Supertramp.
That being said, maybe I SHOULD give a full album a chance.
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School one of my all time favorites, just blasted last night in the car
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I have yet to check out a full Supertramp album but the stupid classic rock station in Raleigh plays a few of their hits far too often for me to enjoy them anymore. Thankfully, I only hear them during the summer when I'm lifeguarding, so in order to keep myself from dumping a toaster into the pool, I have to shield myself from mass listenings of Supertramp.
That being said, maybe I SHOULD give a full album a chance.
yes you should, it's a great album. Yes, Dreamer has been played to death IMHO. The other songs are cool though.
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I just heard School on the radio today, and it reminded of how cool early Supertramp was. Definitely proggy in their own way.
That said, most of their radio hits make me want to harm small animals. They're like shiny, happy piles of dog poo. I can totally understand anyone not wanting to dig deeper based on what they've heard on the radio.
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I had no idea “You’re Bloody Well Right” was a Supertramp song. Learn something every day.
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I had a greatest hits for the longest time, but after seeing Roger Hodgson solo about a year ago (GREAT show) I bought all the Supertramp albums he was on and there's so much good stuff hidden under the hits.
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I just heard School on the radio today, and it reminded of how cool early Supertramp was. Definitely proggy in their own way.
That said, most of their radio hits make me want to harm small animals. They're like shiny, happy piles of dog poo. I can totally understand anyone not wanting to dig deeper based on what they've heard on the radio.
this. And when I have tried to dig deeper, I don't get far and wonder if I have missed another cool, jewel like School.