Fly back to the main SUPERTRAMP page! P. Mart Repus Overall Album Score: 8.1 out of 10 Well, I can tell you one thing: this certainly isn't the world's most innovative stuff! Nor, is it the world's most enjoyable stuff. This 1970 debut of Supertramp, however, is solid. It came as a bit of a shock to me to find out that Supertramp basically started at the same time as the more classically-regarded Prog-rock bands such as Genesis, King Crimson, and Yes. However, Supertramp as they display themselves on this album, don't quite measure up to these giants! Nope! So, as it took Supertramp a while to completely polish up their act ... it happened at the same time that Yes, Genesis, and King Crimson were sort of fizzling out (in the mid 70s or thereabouts). Even so, at the very beginning, we see Supertramp not as a progressive rock band in the same resepect as Yes, Genesis, etc ... they are pop-progressive! They write artistic sounding music with lengthy instrumental passages, but much of the time, it's with a more light-minded and almost poppy mentality. They certainly don't sound as heavy as those aforementioned bands do ... especially when you compare them to King Crimson. In that respect, even, they can be much more tolerable. However, when you also compare Supertramp with that of their contemporaries, they are also quite a bit feebler, unfortunately. And, that is probably the reason why Supertramp was not quite ready to breakthrough into stardom quite yet. So, you Supertramp of my heart! You superhero in disguise! You who will go into a phone booth and change into your cape, spandex, and yellow-leather belt! You who will rescue a lot of babes in distress and have all sorts of .... um ... children ... Oh, never mind. Here comes the review grid thingy dilly. (Maybe I should come up with a name for it.) Overall Album Score: 8.1 out of 10 (This is a very entertaining, but not particularly impressive, early 70s Progressive Rock album.) Average Song Score: 8.2 (While this definitely isn't the world's most wonderful collection of tunes, I'd definitely say that listening to them was well worth my time. Me contento mucho.) Album Tilt: 8.0 (There are a few slow moments in here, but by and large, I'm amused by the thing.) Artist Rating: 8.0 (Oh! I would never dog on a progressive rock band in the artistic category! Never! ... That said, Supertramp certainly isn't an impressive progressive rock band ... they're pretty good, though. They pretty much knew what it takes to please their audience.) Track Reviews Surely 4/5 This is a VERY short but thoughtful (and tuneful) ditty. It's only 30 seconds. That's not even long enough for some of my bodily functions to happen, so ... It's a Long Road 7/10 Some thought and skill went into this! But all in all, it's just a big fat nothing (like Rush Limbaugh). This song is pretty much just a long instrumental and then there's some singing whenever they have time for it (and there's a decent tune here, but it's not great). I'm not greatly affected by it, but it isn't bad at all. Audabe and I'm Not Like the Other Birds of Prey 9/10 YEAH! NOW THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! What a wonderful prog-rock song! I mean ... the tune doesn't have 8,000,000 impressive hooks in it, but dang it! This is a nice, quiet, English folky song that is thoughtful and slightly heavenly ... and that chorus can just set my soul a-soaring ... Oh! What a nice song. This is even comparable to the quality of what Genesis was doing at the time. Words Unspoken 9.5/10 Yay! Now this is a minor-freaking masterpiece! It seems to do so effortlessly what Genesis seems to accomplish after so much work. (... that wasn't really a compliment to Supertramp ... Supertramp tackle these progressive rock songs with much more simple pretenses than Genesis.) Nevertheless, this song is absolutely lovely! Maybe I'm a Beggar 8/10 This track starts out with a sort of pan-flute that is all too common of soundtracks of films that take place in Africa or Australia or South America or someplace. You know ... this is kind of like generic tribal music without drumming! After that, when the song gets going ... it's fairly entertaining. It keeps trudging along and it doesn't really get not-entertaining. Unlike too many moments at the end of this album, the instrumental passage here is rather enjoyable. (One immediate advantage Supertramp has over Genesis here is that they are willing to let some electric guitar stand out in the foreground.) Home Again 4.5/5 This is another VERY short passage ... and it's not long enough for it to start sucking at all, so ... um ... thumbs up! (This one takes a minute ... and there aren't many of my bodily functions that take an entire minute ... so this song is okay.) Nothing to Show 7.5/10 Well, this one is mildly entertaining ... it's not incredibly tuneful or anything ... nor is it particularly memorable ... but it is pretty entertaining to sit through. Yep. It has energy ... and energy is GOOD. Maybe they could lend somma that to the Pope. Shadow Song 8.5/10 Hey! There's more of that ethnic flute! What's with the ethnic flute? I don't know what's with that ethnic flute. Supertramp must have loved the ethnic flute. I don't know what they see in it, myself. I mean ... it's not that I really have anything against the ethnic flute ... I just want to know why they can't use something else that's ethic in their songs. Like the accordion, the maracas, or Chicken Lo Mein ... Er. Sorry. Now, where was I? Oh yeeeah! Um... Hey! Supertramp hasn't yet forgotten how to be good 'n' entertaining! This is a very very nice little progressive rock song that is tuneful and ... dang it! ... it's even quite luverly. Yep. Luverly. Try Again 11/15 ...Oh! Is that ethnic flute a recorder? Dude! I feel like an idiot! (Yet, it was being played in a very ethnic way!) I think there must be a rule somewhere in prog-rock land that every good prog-rock album has to have a very long song in it that's nothing but an overlong, piddly instrumental passage. Eh ... oh well ... it certainly isn't AWFUL, It's only slightly boring. I'm pretty much amused through it. The end might just be going a little too much piddly direction, however. Unless you have an exceptional guitar player or something, you shouldn't piddle. That's something my mother taught me. Surely 8.5/10 Hey! This is the same song that we opened the album with! Cool! And it is longer than all of the bodily functions that I can think of (except one time when I think I must have eaten bad sauerkraut at a German restaurant. Oh never mind ... this song is pretty nice, actually. It proves again that Supertramp is a nicely entertaining band. They can be beautiful when they want to be ... and they're hardly ever ugly. Leave your super comments here, you tramp, here!

All reviews are copyrighted by the author, Michael Lawrence. He is the acting secretary of the College Socialists of Perdue University.