Album Reviews
Crime of the Century | Supertramp
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There’s definitely a few surprises lurking in my music collection. Take a look at my Favorite’s page. You’ll get a pretty good idea of a particular style of music that really hits it home for me. But it’s impossible for any quick list to account for all the outliers… and they often don’t account for any at all. I’ve left hints of a few of these outliers here and there, and now seems as good a time as any for another. I actually happen to like Supertramp in general, but Crime of the Century (1974) was their best work and among my favorite classic rock albums.
On the surface, Supertramp could easily sound like just another classic/pop/progressive rock band from the 70’s that only your dad would dare to be caught listening. So, if me mentioning this band has caught you off guard… don’t worry. It should. However, if you’ve been digging my recommendations thus far for the right reasons, I know you’ll, at the very least, appreciate this band. Surface appearances can be deceiving. Despite Supertramp’s apparent pop sound with catchy melodies, I think you’ll agree that there is a lot of musical talent to be appreciated. Crime of the Century is an incredibly cohesive album all the way through and has some of the best uses of dynamics I’ve heard. Along the same line of thought in my Abigail’s Ghost post about the EQ spectrum, Crime of the Century really nails the right way to approach achieving these dynamics. Soft and quiet sections of a song can feel all the more soft and quiet when only a small slice of the EQ spectrum is used. Transitioning into a louder and more aggressive movement feels all the more loud and aggressive when the entire EQ spectrum is filled at the transition. This sounds very scientific and maybe even cut-and-dry… but the artistic execution and the feeling conveyed is not scientific… it’s… well, awesome is what it is.
I know I tend to gravitate to musically inclined metal with dark tones, odd meter, tension, and energy… but who says you need metal for those qualities. There are also layered movements, well-crafted syncopation, etc. I like Supertramp for many of the same reasons I like bands such as Tool and Porcupine Tree. Supertramp just happens to fall in a different sub-genre of rock. If you’re a true music aficinado, then you can’t help but appreciate Crime of the Century… and hopefully you’ll enjoy it as much as I do. Then again… maybe there’s just a part of me stuck in the 60’s and 70’s when all the ‘good’ rock ‘n’ roll was written.
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