Review:

on 2011-05-07 CharlesMartel Said:

No, I'll be honest and admit it, I like this. Actually I don't. And in spite of the fact that, in some ways, Supertramp were an important part of my life, I don't really like Supertramp either. They might have been the first band I ever went to see - way back in 1974 in the Plymouth Guildhall - and they may have been with me (well some of their songs at least) through one of the most enjoyable and carefree phases of my life, but I lost any affinity for them as I was growing up and never really developed a greater taste for their music.

What this is, is a collection of songs, many of which are individually brilliant but which fail utterly to impress as an album. The album is filled from start to finish with clever songs, excellent lyrics, and changes in musical tempo which at times can astound. I have always found "Asylum" and "Hide In Your Shell" to rank among the finest examples of progressive rock ever produced: shorn of pretension and relying instead on good quality musicianship and wordcraft. Yet, I find it absolutely astounding that songs of this calibre can be brought together and thereby comprise an album so poor it is virtually unlistenable as a single entity. I may enjoy the odd track when it pops up on the iPod shuffle, but the album as a whole bores me to tears.

I have given this six stars with a mixture of embarrassment and reluctance. Embarrassment because I really feel that some of the songs on here are worth a greater regard than that ranking would indicate. Reluctance because I cannot, in all conscience, feel anything but a sense of cringeworthiness when I think of the album as a whole. In the end, I decided I had to rate the songs themselves one by one. That brought me to about nine stars, near enough. Then I felt obliged to take off three of those stars for the album's collective failure to impress.

In one sense, however, "Crime of the Century" is one of the saddest albums I have ever reviewed. I recall many years ago having a fantastic night in a bar in Leidseplein (sorry to all you Dutch people if I have spelt it wrong). "Dreamer" and "Bloody Well Right" were two of the tracks which were belted out over the sound system and made the night so memorable. As is always the case, individual tracks are highlights while the album is a disappointment. That night in Leidseplein was one glorious summer evening I shall not forget in a hurry.

Then, almost twenty years later on my first return visit to Amsterdam since that time, I walked into the same bar and found a few sad old individuals slumped across the bar listening to "Dreamer" and "Bloody Well Right". I left. I felt profoundly dismayed and dejected by the whole experience. I never returned. (I have often made it a policy never to go back to the scene which had given me fond memories and I should have stuck to that policy). I haven't listened to this album as a whole since, though I still occasionally put on individual tracks and enjoy them just as much.

If ever there was an album which set the definition for equalling less than the sum of its parts, then this is surely it.
Rating: 6/10