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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Tramp was indeed Super!, 26 Jan 2006
It's great to see Supertramp back in the limelight with the recently released Retrospectacle compilation. Although their repackaged material certainly works well in its own right, I would strongly recommend all of the series of albums comprising Crime of the Century, Crisis? What Crisis?, Even In The Quietest Moments and Breakfast In America - corkers every one of them.CWC came a year after COTC - a hard act to follow by any standards - and it stands up well in comparison to that album. Rather than simply produce more of the same the band wisely adopted a more relaxed, less heavily produced approach which has meant that the album has hardly dated at all. Was this really made 30 years ago?? Although Rick Davies is curiously subdued on this album compared with the others (with the exception of Nobody But Me and the spendid Another Man's Woman), Roger Hodgson makes up for it with some of his best-ever songs: in my humble opinion, Sister Moonshine, Soapbox Opera and the utterly exquisite closer, Two Of Us knock spots off the likes of Logical Song and Breakfast in America. What is also notable is that, despite the vocal/songwriting/instrumental contributions of Messrs Davies and Hodgson, this sounds like a real GROUP effort. John Helliwell embellishes every song with one of a number of wind instruments which he plays with style and panache (not to mention his highly distinctive backing vocals). And as for Dougie Thompson/Bob Siebenberg.... was there a better rhythm section in the business? Despite its obvious quality, the album was somewhat overshadowed (undeservedly) by COTC and, due to the fact that it was followed by the even-better EITQM and their commercial pinnacle that was BIA, it is the most overlooked of their "classic era" albums. That's too bad but with attention focused on Supertramp again and CWC available in re-mastered form and sounding even better than ever (although the production was pretty damn good in the first place), now is the time to familiarise yourselves with this classic piece of work. BUY IT!
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