While not as commercially or critically successful as Supertramp's seventies material, ...Famous Last Words is still a strong album and is still very faithful to the sound and musical style that the band had made their own in the previous decade.
The biggest hit from this album, It's Raining Again is perhaps one of the weaker songs on the album. It has that fun whimsical style but it also comes across as the band merely going through the motions.
The real meat & potatoes of the album are some of the deeper cuts like Crazy & Put On Your Old Brown Shoes. Both of which take full advantage of the vocals of both Hodgson & Davies not to mention the superlative woodwind skills of John Helliwell and apparently the band thought well enough of both of those songs as they did make it onto the setlist of Hodgson's farewell tour with the band.
While both Hodgson & Supertramp would later find some success separately there was a lightning in a bottle magic that crystallized on Crime of the Century and remained present through Hodgson's final show with the band in Munich in 1983. And admittedly, this album isn't as good as Crime of the Century, Breakfast in America, or even Crisis? What Crisis?! but it is still quite enjoyable and remains a worthy bookend to Roger Hodgson's tenure in the band.
Related Links & Media
Supertramp Crisis? What Crisis?! (1975) review
Supertramp Even In the Quietest Moments (1977) review
Supertramp Breakfast in America (1979) review
Roger Hodgson In the Eye of the Storm (1984) review
Supertramp It Was the Best of Times (2000) review
Roger Hodgson Open the Door (2000) review
Something Else Reviews: Featured Artist - Supertramp
1 comment:
Not one of my favorite albums from Supertramp, yet it is much better than most of the post Hodgson albums.
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