Booger Where You Bound
Overall Album Score: 5.3 out of 10 If the brother is bound anywhere in the general vicinity that Supertramp was bound, then his future outlook is pretty bleak. After Roger Hodgson’s departure, Rick Davies took over the reigns for better or worse … and Davies managed to come up with such a big clunker that it almost makes us forget about how awful Famous Last Words was. There are only six songs on this 40-minute album … and more than 16 of those minutes are taken up by the unbelievably drawling and dreary title track. … … Oh yes, this is such a sad, sad album that I’d much rather just forget about it. Because I don’t want to think that these are the same guys who did Crime of the Century and the beloved song “Hide in Your Shell.” Because I love “Hide in Your Shell.” It’s such a great song. And this album sucks. It’s been said that this album was Supertramp’s vehicle to return to its progressive roots. Hogswollop! This is just an attempt by Davies to make some pop music. The only reason this might be confused as “progressive” is the drawling nature of these songs. They’re not drawling to be progressive. They’re drawling because they needed to fill up space. Blah! Blah! I do that in my music reviews sometimes, and I don’t go calling them “progressive reviews.” I will never succumb to calling this stuff Progressive-rock! NEVER! I DON’T CARE HOW MUCH YOU TRY TO CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE! YOU WOULD JUST BE WRONG!!!! All that said, “Cannonball,” the album opener basically beats any single track off of Famous Last Words, even though it’s not very great … and I suppose “Better Days” is alright as well. Other than that, this is completely and hopelessly dismal. Evade it, please. Overall Album Score: 5.3 out of 10 (Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry disappointing. I used to give this band album scores in the high eights … what happened???) Average Song Score: 5.9 (This is pretty sorry. A few decent musical ideas spread over too long a time.) Album Tilt: 5.0 (Insipid.) Artist Rating: 5.0 (Well, Rick Davies at least *tried* even though he can hardly write a decent melody for squat. It didn’t sound like he gave up on it.) Track Reviews Cannonball 8/10 This is a sprawling, 7-minute that is utterly trapped in the cheesy old 80s … and, to tell you the absolute truth, this is much better than it really has any right to be. Deadbeat drum machines, pointless instrumental passages, LENGTHY … and it somehow manages to be totally cool and suave. It’s based on a pretty neat groove, even though we’ve heard it many times before, and it has a remarkably well developed atmosphere. Perhaps Roger Hodgson’s departure was a blessing. After that debacle Famous Last Words, “Cannonball” is a bit of a relief. Of course, the rest of the album isn’t as good as this, but … oh well. Still in Love 6/10 Yikes! Rick Davies sounds so confident here … the instrument playing was exceptional and so was the basic arranging. I guess nobody had the heart to inform him that there isn’t even a trace of a catchy hook in the melody. This is really quite sad. But it was performed well. I can’t ignore that. And I love the sax. No Inbetween 5/10 Again, I enjoy the production. Rick Davies, I think, produced this bad song just as well as he would have produced a better one. (That said, the piano loop in here was almost enough to drive me insane. Everything else is top-on 80s. And that’s some good sax.) The melody here is unfortunate, because there are NO HOOKS in it. That’s sort of important. Better Days 7.5/10 Hey! Look what I found! HOOKS! … Of course, these HOOKS aren’t great ones, but they are enough to be considered adequate. That, plus Davies’ splendid production (which is 80s to its core), makes “Better Days” a rather enjoyable number. The major drawback to this song is its 6-minute length, however, and it doesn’t have quite that level of staying power. (And what’s with the politician sound bites. Quit it with your ‘topical’ bologna.) Brother Where You Bound 8/20 Well, Supertamp finally bit the big one. This is a 16+ minute discourse that screams out a very important message to me: Supertramp are wankers. Half of the songs they’ve had so far didn’t have enough musical ideas to keep them interesting, suggesting that they probably didn’t have much energy to create more actual songs. So, they drag this one out for 12 minutes more than they ought to and hope that we are entertained by it. And we’re not. Well, I take that back, there are a few entertaining moments in here … but this is mostly just a boring old dreary waste of time. … … … … … Is this song over yet? Ever Open Door 7/10 The best thing about this final song is its brevity. It’s only BARELY above three minutes! Awesome awesome awesome. Besides that, it has a passable tune and okay production. My brain is still numb from “Brother Where You Bound,” but I can and do appreciate this (mostly because it’s the end of the album, but … yeah.) Goodnight to you! I’ll see you later, whenever I get around to reviewing the next Supertramp catastrophe -- I mean *album*. Do you have a booger to pick with me? Don't talk behind my back, talk to my face! E-mail me here, bucko. |
All reviews are copyrighted by the author, Michael Lawrence. He has inflatable knees.
