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From the Vault...
05/31/1998
#579 |
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info
Supertramp
"Famous Last Words"
© A&M Records
Year of Release: 1982
Rating:
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track listing
Crazy
Put On Your Old
Brown Shoes
It's Raining Again
Bonnie
Know Who You Are
My Kind Of Lady
C'est Le Bon
Waiting So Long
Don't Leave Me Now
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Supertramp
"Famous Last Words"
The year was 1982 and Supertramp was riding high
since their breakthrough album Breakfast In America
was released in 1979. The band had been around since 1970,
with numerous albums and few hits, but it wasn't until
the Breakfast album where the band received more
radio airplay they should have deserved with their previous releases.
With a live 1980 album and 1982's ...famous last words...,
it was announced that lead singer Roger
Hodgson was leaving the group for a solo career. With
an album title such as ...famous last words..., it was
assumed that we had seen the last of Supertramp.
However, the band went on without Hodgson, as he would begin
his solo career.
...famous last words... to describe it, is half pop,
half progressive. The pop half I'd have to compare it to
the style of R.E.O. Speedwagon when they became more of a
pop-rock band, and/or Styx, another band that went in that direction.
The only big hit from this release is It's Raining Again,
and how "pop" can you get with that song? It's a nice up-beat
pop song, and if you are familiar with this tune, it sounds
as if the rest of the album may be as up-beat pop sounding.
Crazy and Put On Your Old Brown Shoes are
as pop and up-beat as It's Raining Again. Bonnie
is a more slow-paced piano-based ballad, like an R.E.O. or
Billy Joel ballad. Yet, as the song plays towards the end,
it has a somewhat theatrical/progressive sound to it. Another song in
this same case, is Know Who You Are, where this tune
brings back the progressive sound heard from past
Supertramp songs/albums.
Another pop-sounder, My Kind Of Lady, is a medium-paced
pop song that has high-range vocals similar to the Bee Gees.
(Gee, now there's a strange comparison...) It's not disco Bee Gees,
but it's definitely pop. The remaining songs, C'est Le Bon,
Waiting So Long and Don't Leave Me Now captures
the progressive sounding style as the very early Genesis when
Phil Collins took over for Peter Gabriel.
As much as I thought that this album would have a pop sound
throughout, I was surprised how the musical style had
drastically changed from pop, upbeat tempo songs to a more
progressive sound. The progressive sound is how Supertramp
is best remembered, as their pre-Breakfast In America
releases. The outcome of this album was a surprise in sound,
as Supertramp is considered an under-rated band. Their albums
may not be best remembered, but their material of music
is truly remarkable for the progressive music fan. The
progressive songs on ...famous last words... are truly
great, as only Supertramp could play them. Yet the pop-sounding
songs were below-average for the kind of music that Supertramp
had been previously famous for. Yet the album is good, in
a sense, that it starts out low, and ends with a good high.
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