Two voices will always remain indelibly stamped with the Supertramp sound: Roger Hodgson\u2019s high wail, so key to songs like \u201cDreamer\u201d and \u201cThe Logical Song,\u201d and Rick Davies\u2019 gruff, slightly hectoring tenor, which gave necessary grit to tracks like \u201cGoodbye Stranger\u201d and \u201cBloody Well Right.\u201d The combination of those voices on Supertramp\u2019s classic albums was potent and necessary to the success of the band\u2019s prog-pop sound in the mid-to-late 1970s.<\/p>\n
But after 1982\u2019s famous last words<\/i>, Hodgson left, and a bitter Davies opted to continue fronting the group solo, taking over all vocals and songwriting duties in addition to keyboards. This being the mid-\u201880s, he also brought in an array of session players to buffet the sound and add jazz flourishes and then landed David Gilmour to solo on the title track (on hiatus from Pink Floyd at the time, Gilmour was keen to work with other musicians).<\/p>\n
The immediate finding here is the sound leaning more heavily on piano and keyboards than on guitar \u2013 although since this was 1985, nobody noticed. The second finding is that the album really had no pop hits or winning radio-friendly singles with the exception of \u201cCannonball,\u201d as the now-quartet seemed keen to return to its more prog roots of the early \u201870s. The third is that the lyrics are more straightforward now, a mix of Cold War-politics and personal confessionals to Hodgson that also work in the context of any relationship or friendship. And the fourth is a much stronger emphasis on jazzy sounds and saxophone solos, not only in the 16-minute title track but spread out across the first four songs as well.<\/p>\n
\u00a0It’s certainly true to the spirit of the original Supertramp, if not necessarily the sound. But it will hold limited appeal to those who haven\u2019t been true believers from the beginning (to wit: If you think the band\u2019s best songs are \u201cCasual Conversation\u201d and \u201cFool\u2019s Overture,\u201d you\u2019re the target audience here). \u201cStill In Love\u201d aims for the cheesy, thin-sounding pop of the \u201880s and fails, \u201cNo Inbetween\u201d is an unmemorable piano ballad and \u201cEver Open Door\u201d is along the same lines but a little more heartfelt, the flip side of \u201cCannonball\u2019s\u201d angry sentiment, sounding like a Greg Lake song mixed with a hymn (so, Works Vol. 1<\/i>).\u00a0 And even \u201cBetter Days\u201d is pretty darn corny, sounding like a cross between Survivor\u2019s \u201cEye Of The Tiger\u201d and the Alan Parsons Project, with some random flute playing and a dance beat to give this stale Cold War screed some sort of life.<\/p>\n
That leaves the title track and \u201cCannonball.\u201d The latter was the band\u2019s last hit in edited form; as usual, the longer version is recommended, as the jazz playing meets the robotic pulse to create something different and chilly, spaced with the occasional nifty instrumental break (note the \u201cBillie Jean\u201d-style guitar sound that underpins the second verse, for example). But the lyrics are straightforward and mad, Davies working out his feelings against an ex-girlfriend or, possibly, Hodgson, building to a shouted climax of \u201cYou can say what you want all day \/ But I\u2019ve never been so outraged \/ And I\u2019m washing my hands of you \/ How could you be so untrue?\u201d \/ You know I can\u2019t stand no more.\u201d <\/p>\n
As for the 16-minute \u201cBrother Where You Bound?\u201d Yikes, where to start? This one has all the elements in place for a prog classic \u2013 David Gilmour on guitar, a long run time, political lyrics \u2013 and yet it cannot coalesce its many parts into something truly memorable and cohesive. The piece started at 10 minutes during the famous last words <\/i>sessions and was pulled, but the band revisited it to give it a bit of a Cold War twist and some quotes from 1984 <\/i>over the (long) introduction. Davies\u2019 gritty voice and staccato delivery of the choruses is a good contrast to the verses, while the saxophone provides a breath of air from the general feeling of paranoia and claustrophobia that hovers over the track. Unfortunately, a strong six minutes of this gives way to a series of unrelated instrumental breaks and jams, some decent (Gilmour\u2019s spot at 10 minutes in) and most rather dull before returning to the main instrumental theme to close out the track. It would have been interesting to hear how the band envisioned the piece originally; I suspect it would have axed the middle six minutes of noodling and kept the beginning and end, which would have made for a better song. Perhaps there wasn\u2019t enough material to fill an LP?<\/p>\n
Whatever the case, this is the last somewhat interesting album Supertramp made, though by no means is it near the level of the Hodgson\/Davies classics. Again, longtime fans may want to check it out, but most others should stick with the full-length of \u201cCannonball\u201d and call it good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":33195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6166],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-45004","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-supertramp","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45004"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45004"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}