JEAN MARC BAILLEUX CHRONICLE MAGAZINE ROCK & FOLK N ° 155 December 1979 Page 87/88 3 albums 33 RPM 1974 Ref: A & M AML 68258 Upon returning from the tour deplorable that had passed for the first time by home, the band split. Hodgson and Davies took two years to assemble a new team and record a third album which it was decided that if he did not get some success, it would be the last. But before scuttling they were determined to put the package, and with them a record company more concerned to play a long-term group, organizing a career rather than to attempt shots, and that was willing to give them the means of their strategy. This strategy was we erase everything and start, it takes time to polish everything with an almost maniacal care and assistance of the best assets: the producer for the disc's most famous and most expensive in the world: for scene the most sophisticated equipment then available both for the sound to the lights - I remember the lighting to the console already had several pages of instructions for the decor of each songs (1974) and was showing among Supertramp first, when he was still almost unknown, these gigantic gallows that can each receive dozens of spots. Most of those who discovered through Supertramp "Crime Of The Century" believed in the birth of a new group, and besides there was no indication that he had spent so have come since "Indelibly Stamped" was impressive. They had changed era. Ken Scott then had a few years ahead of all producers in the world. Like a Phil Spector or Brian Wilson, he would mark his time, giving rise to a real school where we find the best producers today. Tommy Li Puma, Ted Templeman and Phil Manzanera. By itself "Crime Of Century" is enough to prove this great anticipation of Ken Scott on the taste of an era; but can also listen to the first tubes it properly manufactured. The sound is incredible clarity, precision, space, shade, color ... Production transcends even (as if it were necessary!) The intrinsic qualities of the songs. Supertramp is the architect of his own success, Ken Scott is the prime contractor. Without the eight masterpieces that are the songs, ALL the songs, his work would have been as wrong ear without consistency; without this work "Crime Of The Century" would have been a remake on another level of the first disc, with the risk he was soon released, soon forgotten. "Crime Of The Century" is THE concept album; therefore, no surprise that we will find the wonderful unity of tone and atmosphere of "Supertramp", doubled here a unity of purpose giving the disk as a collection of small new critical education , the school's inability to learn to live ("School", "Bloody Well Right"), schizophrenia resulting ("Hide In Your Shell", "Asylum", "Dreamer") the inability to manage his own existence ("Rudy"), the lack of communication and lack of solidarity ("If Everyone Was Listening"), all ending with an exhortation to vigilance, to action, to Hope ("Crime Of The Century"). The material was enriched songs without thicken; the instruments are often dubbed, the against-point systematized in the distance runs a harmonic proliferation sometimes including discrete but very effective orchestrations Richard Hewson. The division of roles becomes clearer. The talents of Roger Hodgson and Richard Davies are surprisingly complementary; to that one melodic genius in pure creation, fluidity, prettiness; to it the sense of construction, development and rhythmic excitement, the implementation of the raw material supplied by its partner - which does not prevent him from being occasionally a composer full delivering in turn, but more rarely, as sumptuous melodies and subtle than those of Hodgson. In one, a high-pitched voice and limpid; to another, the roughness and thickness of the deep song. As for the new group, he regained the cohesion of the first. Bob Benberg is the archetypal white drummer Phil Collins and Terry Bozzio other technical, academic, efficient and inventive, extending its contribution to the battery "Tuned percussion" (percussion that can play notes: marimba, xylophone, vibraphone etc ....) We always regret that Hodgson has abandoned the bass, but Dougie Thomson takes his place unpretentious. As for John Anthony Helliwell, but still relatively quiet about the disk, you quickly discover its omnipresence, especially on stage where in addition to the role of soloist and accompanist (which is less common) to the reeds he holds keyboards strings, providing the harmonic background in the absence of the orchestra. "Crime Of The Century" is a durable gem of pop music, the first manifestation of the technological revolution that has transformed the world of sound. The first summit of the career of Supertramp. Essential.
