CD Odyssey Disc 586: Supertramp

For the second straight review, my random album also represents the last review in my collection for a particular artist – this time it is Supertramp.  I’d like to say I saved the best for last but that would be a lie.

Disc 586 is….Even in the Quietest Moments…

Artist: Supertramp

Year of Release: 1977

What’s up with the Cover? A piano left out in the snow.  The view is impressive and one that might inspire the pianist’s playing, but all that snow is definitely going to affect the tuning.  I would say if you need to have the piano exactly there, build a gazebo.

How I Came To Know It: This was an album I bought from our friend Gord when he was getting rid of his CD collection.  It was an easy way to flesh out my collection, and since I knew the hit, “Give A Little Bit” from the radio days of my youth, I took a chance on it.

How It Stacks Up:  I have three Supertramp albums, and by far this is the worst of them.

Also, as this is the last album left to review of this particular band, here’s a quick recap of how I feel about their discography, or at least the portion of their discography in my collection:

1. Breakfast in America: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 341)
2. Crime of the Century: 4 stars (reviewed recently at Disc 558)
3. Even in the Quietest Moments: 2 stars (reviewed right here)

Rating:  2 stars

Beware of an album with ellipses in the title – it will be prone to ramble. Also, given this is a Supertramp review you will already be starting with a significant amount of ramble, so the margin for error will be limited.

As you can see from my rankings above, I very much enjoyed my other two Supertramp albums, and with “Even in the Quietest Moments” coming right between them chronologically you’d expect things to go well.  Yeah, well – not so much.

This album has its moments, one of which fittingly is the title track, which has Supertramp doing what they do best – a beautiful blend of guitar and piano with vocals questioning the meaning of it all.

“Give a Little Bit” was a big radio hit, and it is a pretty fine little pop song.  If it is a bit on the hippy dippy side, we can forgive that since it was released in 1977. It also has one of those instantly recognizable opening riffs that sound easy to accomplish, but are devilishly difficult to actually come up with.

Apart from these songs, however, “Even in the Quietest Moments” just doesn’t have enough actual moments, quiet or otherwise.

Most of the songs don’t go anywhere melodically, they just sort of plod along while the band sings about sad and wan topics that had me wishing I was listening to the Carpenters.  When listening to Supertramp makes you wish you were listening to the Carpenters, you know you’ve got a pretty unimpressive Supertramp album on your hands.

The band’s hallmarks are still there.  They still have songs heavily reliant on vocals and piano, with an effort to layer other sounds in as well.  The songs themselves have a progressive quality, and aren’t afraid to change up two or three times as they progress.  However, on other Supertramp albums I’ve heard the changes slowly build the song up, whereas on “Even in the Quietest Moments” they just lurch about from one trite line to the next without ever feeling like they are going anywhere.

As with most Supertramp albums, this one doesn’t have a lot of songs, but the ones that it does have take their time to get their point across.  “Even in the Quietest Moments” only has seven tracks and four of them are over six minutes long.  I am fine with this if it is worthwhile (the title track clocks in at 6:29 and it is a great track), but when a song is boring, making it longer just makes it that much more interminable (pun intended).

The worst offender is “Fool’s Overture.”  The final track on the album, it is over ten minutes long and along the way features a meandering piano introduction for the first two minutes.  A river also meanders of course, but even that eventually gets somewhere.  The piano’s destination in “Fool’s Overture” is the sound of your Grandma’s clock chiming, and a sample of Winston Churchill giving his “We Will Never Surrender” speech before the song finally gets moving at about 3:30.  The resulting riff reminded me of Fashion TV’s credits (although it wasn’t) but it is the kind of song that is best for playing over the credits of something else.

When “Even in the Quietest Moments” tries to be profound, it sounds overwrought and when it tries to be thoughtful it sounds boring and faded.  The title track manages to capture some of the band’s usual magic and “Give A Little Bit” gives at least a little bit, but it is too little of a good thing.  Most of the time this record had me wishing I was hearing either “Crime of the Century” or “Breakfast in America.”

Best tracks:   Give a Little Bit, Even in the Quietest Moments

CD Odyssey Disc 558: Supertramp

Another crazy day with too much to do and too little time.  If you’re also feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of life’s demands, here’s a review to let you know that forty years ago people felt exactly the same way.

Disc 558 is…. Crime of the Century

Artist: Supertramp

Year of Release: 1974

What’s up with the Cover?  What happens when you commit the crime of the century?  According to this cover you’re not only put in jail, you’re put in an extradimensional prison located in the depths of space!  Who could be capable of a crime so heinous that it would warrant such a punishment?  Read the review and find out.

How I Came To Know It:  I’ve known the hits off this record since I heard them on AM radio as a child.  In terms of actually owning the album, I got this one from my friend Gord when he liquidated his CD collection last year.  Thanks, Gord!

How It Stacks Up:  We have three Supertramp albums.  Of the three, I’d put “Crime of the Century” second, just a step behind “Breakfast in America” but in front of "Even in the Quietest Moments."

Rating:  4 stars

Some albums are perfectly of their time, and “Crime of the Century” is one of those records.  This album speaks strongly to 1974.  The decade of youthful disillusionment was settling in for a long stay, as the optimism of the sixties faded away in the face of stagflation and lost opportunity.

Into this gap stepped Supertramp with their third studio album, putting a voice to a generation that was ready to embrace the absurdity of modern life.  The musical style they chose for “Crime of the Century” was a sort of progressive pop, mixing horns, guitar riffs and the tinkling of piano into a sound that was very innovative for its time.

For the most part I admire the result, although some of the longer songs drag in places, descending into piano solos that shift about too aimlessly for my tastes.  These are still well crafted, even if they’re not entirely to my tastes.  In many ways the band had me thinking of Jethro Tull a few years earlier, except replacing the role of the flute with piano.

It all comes together beautifully with “Bloody Well Right” which was seized on as an anthem at the time and was an early memory for me.  Even though I was very young and the delivery system was AM radio, I can still remember hearing this song as the car drove by the pulp mill that fueled the economy of my home town and knowing something important was going on.  Or maybe I just liked the beat.

Either way, as an adult I recognize “Bloody Well Right” as one of rock’s great songs of rebellion.  Holding to the spirit of 1974, it is an anthem that offers up some unpleasant observations –

“So you think your schooling’s phoney

I guess it’s hard not to agree

You say it all depends on money

And who is in your family tree.”

- But doesn’t offer much in the way of solutions.  Instead it just tells you you’re right to be unhappy about the unfairness of it all, and that you have the right to say so, but beyond that there isn’t much solace for the situation.

The song is thematically bookended by the album’s other big hit, “Dreamer” which feels like an indictment of the hippie generation and its notions of utopia and free love.  Instead we’re reminded that dreamers can’t put their hands in their heads and shape their dreams into reality (oh, no!). They’re stuck in the same world as the rest of us, making do.

Later in the record “Asylum” plays with notions of sanity in the increasing moral uncertainty of the age.  The song has an unhealthy mania to it, even as the singer pleads not to be sent to the asylum, claiming:

“I’m just as sane as anyone.

It’s just a game I play for fun – for fun.”

I love the rising, orchestral nature of this song, as it slowly builds, only to fall back into a simple piano melody in the middle that Elton John would be proud of.

I found some of the songs felt a bit too much like show tunes.  In particular, “Hide In Your Shell” which is overly maudlin, and easy listening and “Rudy” which is frantic and changes pace too often, even for progressive music.

The album’s final song is the title track, and ties a nice little bow on the album with a few choice words, delivered with an oppressive finality:

“Now they’re planning the crime of the century

Well what will it be?

Read all about their schemes and adventuring

It’s well worth the fee

So roll up and see

How they rape the universe

How they’ve gone from bad to worse

Who are these men of lust, greed and glory?

Rip off their masks and let’s see

But that’s not right – oh no, what’s the story?

There’s you and there’s me

That can’t be right!”

Lyrically and musically, it feels like Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” fifteen years early.  Who committed the crime of the century?  We did of course.

“Crime of the Century” is a deeply cynical album, but it is what the age called for, and Supertramp delivered.  When I began listening to it I was certain I’d give it only three stars.  Yet as I finish this review I’m just about through my third listen, and its genius is speaking to me more than its flaws, so I’m upgrading to four stars.

Best tracks:   School, Bloody Well Right, Asylum, Crime of the Century

CD Odyssey Disc 341: Supertramp

Today I woke up to find my voice almost gone. I've been fighting a cold the last couple of days, and while I've mostly beaten into submission through a rigorous and thorough disregard, it is having its final vengeance by removing my ability to speak.

It is at times like these that I always appreciate the ability to communicate through my blog. And so here I go with another music review, as that is what I do.

Disc 341 is...Breakfast In America

Artist: Supertramp

Year of Release: 1979

What’s Up With The Cover?: A very cool piece of art, drawn from the perspective of someone flying into New York City, if New York City were made out of giant breakfast table objects, and the Statue of Liberty were a diner waitress. This cover makes me want to have a glass of orange juice.

How I Came To Know It: This album was a massive hit when it came out back in 1979, and so I knew it from the radio when I was a kid. The CD version comes to the collection via Sheila, who also knew it from her youth. She bought it years ago, maybe even before we met, although I can't remember for sure at this point.

How It Stacks Up: We only have this one Supertramp album, although I was told last night in very passionate terms that their other big release, "Crime Of The Century" is a finer work. I can't say for sure, but plan to find out down the road.

Rating: 4 stars

"Breakfast In America" was a huge album when it came out, and I believe it remains one of the highest selling albums of all time.

Musically, this record is an odd duck among much of the stadium rock that was being made in the late seventies. Rather than guitar, the melodies are driven by piano and the distinctive falsetto vocals of Roger Hodgson. This gives the album a really fresh and unexpected sound that wears well thirty years later.

Many of the songs have strong pop licks, but Supertramp isn't afraid to trail off into long, progressive flights of fancy to end a song. Sometimes these arrangements stray dangerously close to noodling, but they stay on the side of the reasonable, and generally serve to support the emotional resonance of the song.

Lyrically, the songs are like a time capsule back to 1979, and all of the doubt and confusion of the young generation at that time. The front end of Generation X, wondering if they'd ever find our place in the world, or even if they wanted to. It is an album of lost innocence, not just for the youth at that time, but for America itself, making the cover's excessive cheeriness deeply ironic. Consider these classic lines from "The Logical Song":

"When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily
Joyfully, playfully, watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible
Logical, responsible, practical
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable
Clinical, intellectual, cynical.

"There are times when all the world's asleep
The question's come too deep
For such a simple man
Won't you please, please tell me what I've learned
I know it sounds absurd
But please tell me who I am."

When I first heard these lyrics I was nine years old, the tail end of that same Generation X, and they spoke to me even then. It was like I was being given a glimpse into the future loss of innocence. Years later, as an adult I can still listen to this song, or similar ones on the record like "Take The Long Way Home" and "Lord Is It Mine" and those same questions hit just as hard as they ever did.

"Breakfast in America" is as relevant today with its questions as it was in 1979, and there are just as many confused people out there, trying to make sense of it all, and find some meaning and attachment to the world around them. It is thoughtful stuff.

On a lighter note, this record always reminds me of a playground incident I had when I was in Grade Five. There was this older boy - Grade Seven I think - that was a big Supertramp fan. He had a nasty reputation. A year earlier, I had witness him eat a live frog simply because someone paid him $5 and dared him. I think the dare motivated him more than the money. Anyway, as twelve year olds go, he was as tough as they came.

He cornered me on the playground of our elementary school one day and put me in a headlock and demanded I tell him "who was the greatest band in the world." In 1979 this was easy, and I quickly answered "Blue Oyster Cult". All hail the cult.

It turns out this kid was a massive fan of "Breakfast In America" and my answer, though objectively correct, infuriated him no end. He began to squeeze my head until I thought it was going to crack like the bones of the frog had the year before. He acknowledged that BOC was pretty good, but demanded I amend my answer to Supertramp before I could go.

I knew I couldn't do this and expect to ever be able meet the gaze of Buck Dharma or Eric Bloom on the cover of their records again. I refused, but for all my commitment to truth, this only resulted in further twisting and squeezing. I'd like to think that the water coming out of my eyes was simply squeezed out from the pressure, but I'm pretty sure it was tears. I gave him that, I suppose, but somehow I managed to stick with my original answer.

Maybe his arm got tired. Or maybe he decided that BOC was a fair answer after all. Or it could be that he recognized a kid as crazy as him over such minor points of honour, and knew we might be there all day. Whatever the case, he let me go and wandered off, confused and disgusted, to search out a new victim. He was a tough kid, but he was fair in his way, and I like to think he admired bravery in the face of adversity.

"Breakfast in America" is an important record, an excellent one, and it has changed my life along the way for the better. That said, I still owe Supertramp for all the pain of that headlock, so I'm going to say despite the application of torture, I continue to see four stars, not five.

Best tracks: The Logical Song, Goodbye Stranger, Take The Long Way Home, Lord Is It Mine, Just Another Nervous Wreck

CD Odyssey Disc 181: Soundtrack

Much to the consternation of Ice T twitter followers everywhere, the next disc is chock-a-block full of Aimee Mann.

Fortunately for me, I really like Aimee Mann.

Disc 181 is...Magnolia Soundtrack
Artist: Various

Year of Release: 1999

What’s Up With The Cover?: Like most movie soundtracks, I think this is a variation on the movie poster. It is a magnolia leaf (I determined this with my keen powers of deduction - I'm not that good with flowers). In the petals you can see the faces of some of the main characters in the film - William H. Macy, Julianne Moore and some other folks I don't feel like going on about.

How I Came To Know It: In two ways I believe. Firstly, the usual way - liking the movie, and enjoying the music. Secondly, because I knew the album featured a lot of Aimee Mann songs, and I dig Aimee Mann.

How It Stacks Up: I have around 23 soundtracks. "Magnolia" is way up there on that list - I'll say top five, but it is hard to say exactly where.

Rating: 4 stars.

For those who haven't seen the movie, "Magnolia" is a beautiful film by Paul Thomas Anderson, a gifted director also responsible for "Boogie Nights" and my favourite movie of his, "Punch Drunk Love."

He is very adept at capturing emotional disconnect in characters, and this is on fine display in Magnolia; a loosely connected series of stories that deal with a variety of characters each going through their own journey with isolation and loneliness. It is a depressing movie in the main, but thankfully the film's heart is rescued at the end by the frogs. If you've seen it, you know what I mean. If you haven't go see it. And yes - I like the frog ending.

The soundtrack of "Magnolia" has more to do with the movie than usual. A lot of soundtracks are just a collection of songs that may (or may not) even go well with the film.

With "Magnolia" PT Anderson was actually adapting Aimee Mann's music into a screenplay. I expect he was listening to the album from earlier that year, called "Bachelor No. 2". At least that's the story I've heard, and I heard it from an expert - my wife! Also, the liner notes confirm it's true.

The album has four repeats from "Bachelor No. 2", including "Deathly", "Driving Sideways", "You Do" and an instrumental-only version of "Nothing Is Good Enough". They have a slightly different production, but they're all just as good (OK - I prefer "Nothing Is Good Enough" with words).

Of these, the one that stands out is "Deathly" a song where the singer warns a new person off, for fear that falling in love can only lead to pain (remember - emotional disconnect). The singer is certain conquest will only end the relationship:

"Now that I've met you
Would you object to
Never seeing each other again
'Cause I can't afford to
Climb aboard you
No one's got that much ego to spend."

Like the movie, the album is a bit of a downer, but it is a beautiful downer. Rarely does a soundtrack relate so well to a film, or have such consistently strong songwriting. It was a rare treat from the soundtracks section.

Her signature song from the album is "Save Me" a five star song about misfits trying to find love which was honoured with an Academy Award nomination. Here the story takes a truly tragic turn.

In an incredibly competitive field, "Save Me" was beaten - but not by fellow strong nominees like the South Park movie's "Blame Canada" (comedically brilliant); not even by Randy Newman's song from Toy Story 2, "When She Loved Me" (I defy you to watch that scene in the movie and keep a dry eye).

No - Mann was beaten by the irredeemably bad song, "You'll Be In My Heart", inflicted upon our world by Phil Collins for the Disney Tarzan movie. As songs go, there isn't much worse - I guess Nickelback, but after that, everything would only manage to equal this song's awfulness.

There is a bit of a happy ending here, though. Trey Parker and Matt Stone viciously pilloried Collins in an episode of South Park (depicting Phil Collins walking around with an Oscar statue as Timmy upstages him by fronting a heavy metal band). It should embarass Phil Collins enough that he won an Oscar for that song - but now he can be reminded of it with South Park reruns for years to come.

After all, no one likes to be constantly reminded they won something they don't deserve. Do they, Reggie Bush?

But I digress - let's get back to the record. After nine Aimee Mann songs, I always find the final four tracks jarring.

The first two are famous Supertramp songs, ""Goodbye Stranger" and "Logical Song". I love these songs, but I prefer them on "Breakfast In America". Their seventies rock vibe meshes poorly with Mann's more haunting and modern pop music.

Two more songs follow by artists I've never heard of - although Jon Brion, who writes the title track, does colloborate with Mann on some of her songs, so I'll give him a pass, even though his solo entry is a bit dull. That said, when I'm listening to this album unfettered by CD Odyssey rules, I usually just stop playing the disc after Track 9.

Even with this minor fault, "Magnolia" remains a great soundtrack, and a perfectly acceptable introduction to Aimee Mann - and if you don't have "Breakfast In America" you can consider the Supertramp songs a bonus (and then stop listening after Track 11).

Best tracks: Deathly, Driving Sideways, You Do, Wise Up, Save Me.