Supertramp
Crisis? What Crisis?

Interesting work by the Anglo-American group Supertramp. Although it was released almost five years before the highly acclaimed "Breakfast in America," it contains, necessarily in its embryonic stage, the winning factors to create a good product during the acid/progressive period of 1975 and then, in a decidedly more mature form, the masterpiece in question. The opening of the work is cleverly slow, with a fluid progression capable of revealing, with the right growth timing, the elements that characterize the peculiarities of Supertramp.

The clean sound, albeit from the striking keyboards, and the bright and clear sound of guitars entirely devoid of muddied riffs, accompany the mostly catchy songs of the album. The not-so-promising cover, merely in illustrative terms, cleverly conceals winning choruses that spring from clear choirs, (Sister Moonshine, Ain't Nobody But Me, and The Meaning) that chase each other in undefined points of each track, achieving effortlessly the desired effect of sticking to every listener's audio. Choruses that vaguely recall the simple and poignant ballads of the '50s but possess an extremely clean sound, free of both vocal and orchestral smears.

The strings in "A Soapbox Opera", the pulsating keyboard in "Lady" which accompanies a sweet and memorable choral refrain, are noteworthy. There are, in my opinion, elements also unconsciously similar to other works that do not spoil the structure of the pieces. Purely for the sake of inserting information, consider the guitar finale of "Another Man's Woman" which sincerely reminds me of something from "Monkberry Moon Delight". The wind instruments are not lacking, primarily clarinets (Just a Normal Day) and saxophones (The Meaning) that manage to add a simply valid contribution, always thanks to Supertramp's indelible trademark: the pristine sound.

As repetitive as it may seem, Hogdson and company's ace up the sleeve is the ability to produce this kind of sound that leaves the listener with the impression that they always play with pristine instruments. The elimination of probable stray notes and potential vocal smears is their inimitable trademark.

I would recommend listening to it, both for merely chronological reasons and for evaluative purposes, right before "Breakfast in America". With good probability, you will notice that from this embryo, something excellent is about to form. You will have undeniable proof of it.