Tweet

Album Details

• Artist: Various Artist Compilations
• Album: Songs Of The Century: An All-Star Tribute To Supertramp
• Label: Cleopatra
• Year of Release: 2012
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: gwhill on 2012-12-26

I am a big fan of pretty much anything Billy Sherwood is involved with and I love Supertramp, so when I heard Sherwood was in charge of assembling an all star tribute to Supertramp, I was excited. Well, this album lives up to my expectations. I mean, it has a lot of my favorite prog musicians and features great music. I was a little confused about the final track, so I asked Sherwood and he said that the label wanted him to include one original song in the spirit of Supertramp. It’s a great tune and sounds a lot like Yes, but I’m not 100 percent convinced its inclusion was a great idea. It just doesn’t seem to fit to me.

The lineup here is amazing in a lot of ways, and the combinations are quite cool. For instance, Larry Fast teams up with John Wetton. Mickey Thomas (of Starship) provides vocals for a song featuring original Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye and guitar wizard Steve Morse. Colin Moulding (XTC) and Geoff Downes (Asia, Buggles, Yes) are teamed up on one track. Original Yes guitarist Peter Banks is featured alongside Richard Page of Mr. Mister fame. Annie Haslam and David Sancious are paired off on a tune. Rick Wakeman and Tony Levin are teamed up with Sherwood on another cut. Yet another match-up features Gary Green of Gentle Giant fame and Jordan Rudess joining Sherwood. Another unique collaboration finds Roye Albrighton (Nektar) and Steve Porcaro (Toto) on the same tune. Robby Krieger is teamed up with Rod Argent. Even that questionable original tune features Chris Squire and Tony Kaye joining Billy Sherwood, making it a purely Yes related piece.

All in all, fans of Supertramp should enjoy this. So should anyone who likes any of the musicians here. Supertramp music is so universal and accessible that it seems like this is a disc that should be in just about any music collection. It’s just plain fun. I highly recommend it to just about anyone.

User Reviews and Comments

Log In or Register to Rate Albums