Grime of the Centurion
Overall Album Score: 8.5 out of 10 Okay... I want to know what that poor person did on the album cover to deserve such a prison sentence! I mean ... DUDE! He must be trapped in another dimension or something, and the only window he has to the outside world is outer space! That must be depressing! (My guess is that he was a space trucker who was sentenced for space speeding while space drinking too much space whisky.) And so! It was 1974 and Supertramp was ready to start being super! Those 1970 and 1971 albums are good and oughtn't to be forgotten, but the albums from 1974 to 1979 were the instruments of Supertramp's reign. And, it's easy to see why a lot of people consider their early albums as mere footnotes. Crime of the Century is where Supertramp discover their style. This one seems to work better as a singular piece of art whereas their previous albums might just have been pieces of experimentation. And, Crime of the Century is noticeably better than the 1970 and 1971 albums. If not for any other reason, it is for the fact that "Hide in Your Shell" is a song that rules over everything on this miserable planet (as well as all the miserable prison cells in outer space). Unfortunately, the shortcomings that we've seen on the previous albums also apply to Crime of the Century. While all these albums have their utterly spellbinding moments, the rest of the album is merely consistently strong. Apart from the spellbinding few, the other songs simply lack good enough melody to really succeed at a monumental scale. That's not to say that they weren't produced exceptionally well in the studio! Really, if it weren't for their superb sense of arranging and studio producing, then this album would be as worthless as my poo. As it stands, Crime of the Century is an excellent album, and I certainly recommend it for people who enjoy progressive pop rock! Overall Album Score: 8.5 out of 10 (A good album! It's not the greatest creation known to mankind, but this is album is special enough to be considered a minor classic ... by me. That's just my opinion ... that just happens to be the only opinion that matters in the world.) Average Song Score: 8.5 (This album starts out as super as you would expect from a band that calls itself Supertramp. And then it sort of fizzles out to mild entertainment after that point. "Hide in Your Shell" is utterly splendid.) Album Tilt: 8.5 (A good album! It consists of some great moments, and the other moments are consistently pleasant. This is a nice piece of work.) Artist Rating: 8.5 (There were plenty of times when I complained about the songwriting. Supertramp aren't the greatest songwriters on the planet, you know! On a different note, the arrangements and the production was splenderiffico!) Track Reviews School 9.5/10 SCHOOL! NO! SCHOOL IS BAD. VERY BAD. But this song is pretty good. It starts up slow and it has a lot of sound effects of kids playing and stuff. And not a moment too soon or a moment too late, the actual song pops up and starts getting slightly more interesting. Then it gets quiet and slow again. And then it gets more interesting and louder and stuff. (This part is a really cool instrumental bit with some deadly hooks in them and stuff ... it's kind of like that piano instrumental part in "Layla," and it's only slightly lesser.) Then we get more singing! And I like this singing. This singing is cool. Yep. This is a creative song with some innovative (if I can use that word) instrumentation. More importantly than that, however, is that this song is highly entertaining. It was a good idea to open the album with this song. It gets me riled to listen to the rest of this. Bloody Well Right 8.5/10 This is still pretty good. This is probably closer to being a regular rock song (with some heavy metal attributes) until we get to the chorus, which is a sort of music hall thing. I like the chorus a lot better than the heavy metal thing only because it's more catchy and enjoyable. The heavy metal part isn't without its merits, but it's not nearly as interesting. Hide in Your Shell 10plus/10 OOOOOOOOOOH MAAAAAAANNNNN!!!!!!!!! Further proof that the All Music Guide is run by lemurs is the fact that they failed to even *check* this track! I mean ... COME ON!!!!! As I was listening to this album preparing to write this review, I wouldn't always be concentrating on it ... except when this track pops up. I might be overrating it, but this is a tremendously engaging song that has an utterly breathtaking chorus. (The chorus is really what makes me fall in love with the whole thing ... the non-chorus parts are still melodious and quite pleasant, though ... but its general uneventfulness goes to make this gorgeous chorus so magnificent.) I also really enjoy their use of that Moog Synth thing. That part was the perfect touch. If only Genesis' Tony Banks would have paid attention to it before writing the keyboard passages to Wind and Wuthering... I'm not a Supertramp fan yet, (the only post-1974 album of theirs that I listened to so far is Breakfast in America) but if they continue doing stuff like this, I shall easily be converted. This song is absolutely priceless. Asylum 8/10 I'm not quite as impressed with "Asylum," even though it uses the same sorta principles that made "Hide in Your Shell" such a doozie. It has an uneventful chorus (that's not as pleasant) and a rousing chorus (that's not as breathtaking). The melody isn't as catchy either. But it's still nice. I'd add that the production was overblown, but not at a significant enough of a level for me to not enjoy it. Dreamer 7.5/10 Good! At the beginning of this, at least, we're back to the great hooks! ... Unfortunately, though the song starts out as being entirely promising, it doesn't catch fire like 'Shell' or even 'Asylum' did. It picks up dramatics toward the end, but the hooks are gone. *Sniff* It's still enjoyable overall. It's an insignificant song. Rudy 7.5/10 Hmmmm... No. I like the production and the instrumentation of this one. That part's really enjoyable. I also like how it picks up dramatics at the end. The very end of this turns into sortuva proto-Disco song. But where's the songwriting? There are very few pop hooks in here! Pop hooks are important, you know, if you want to make a good pop song ... if it's progressive-pop or not. This is a bit too lengthy as well, clocking in at 7:20 minutes. Just the same, I enjoy listening to it, overall. But there's nothing here that screams for my attention too loudly. If Everyone Was Listening 8/10 Pleasantries! This is another fine little Supertramp song! I came to a realization just now. It was a bit retarded in the coming, but I've come to it just the same ... before the album ran out, even. In a significant way, these songs are JUST LIKE classical musical symphonies in a respect that the daddy Progressive Rock bands like Genesis and King Crimson didn't grasp quite as starkly. They have slow moments and then they come to breathtaking choruses. The dramatics of these songs are key. Now, "If Everyone Was Listening" had a much better written melody, then we might have a classic on our hands. This song is nice; it's just not a classic! Crime of the Century 8/10 Like pretty much everything has been in the latter half of this album, this song is mildly pleasant. It's too likable to dislike ... it's too professional to trash. Yet, the melody isn't well written enough to adore it. Sorry. I do like the arrangements and stuff. Supertramp were utter masters at that, I suppose. It'll be a crime for you to *not* send me a comment about this album here! slb23@shaw.ca (Simon B.) received July 21, 2004 I think that CRIME OF THE CENTURY is Supertramp's most
consistently good album. Every song is great, IMO, and the sound quality is
superb (for 1974).
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All reviews are copyrighted by the author, Michael Lawrence. He was born on probation.
