Supertramp – Crime of the Century: Deluxe 40th Anniversary Edition (2014)

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One of the very first vinyl LP’s remastered by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab Inc. back in the late 70s was Supertramp’s Crime of the Century, and it was a perfect candidate for the MFSL treatment. Crime was superbly produced by Ken Scott, who cut his teeth as a recording engineer under George Martin for many of the classic Beatles albums and just the year before produced David Bowie’s glam rock opus The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.

This was already a good sounding album, but the remastering revealed so much more of the sonic complexities, enriching the listening experience for audiophile art rock fans in the days of big headphones, cabinet speakers and brushed aluminum shell receivers. Forty years after the initial 1974 release, the classic album finally gets a fitting remastering treatment for the digital age, without all the loudness and compression issues that plagued earlier CD remasters.

Crime of the Century , Deluxe Edition is more than just a remaster, offered — as we noted earlier — in several formats including a 2 disc set that comes with a 24-page book of photos, essay material and interviews with most of the Crime lineup band members along with Dave Margereson, Supertramp’s manager from 1973-83.

Most of you probably already know the basic story behind one of the fabled breakthrough rock albums of the 1970s: UK’s Supertramp was founded around 1969 by vocalist/pianist Rick Davies, who recruited guitarist/vocalist Roger Hodgson and together with a shifting lineup around them, the two songwriting partners made two albums in the early 70s that gained little notice. Losing their millionaire financial backer, they floundered about for about three years before solidifying the roster by bringing on board Bob Siebenberg (drums), Dougie Thomson (bass) and John Helliwell (woodwinds). Then, armed with a strong set of songs (whittled down from 40+ to eight) and an established co-producer in Scott, they created Crime of the Century, one of the most widely acclaimed pop-prog albums of all time. “Dreamer” became a hit song in the UK while “Bloody Well Right” was popular in the U.S. Supertramp was well on its way.

The music contained is at times astonishing: beginning with the free-wheeling, dramatically crescending “School” that seamlessly tumbles into jazzy/gritty “Bloody Well Right,” this pair of songs represents the most blissful ten minutes of the entire Supertramp discography. “Dreamer,” written by a teenaged Hodgson, is as disarmingly charming a pop tune as it gets from someone not named Paul McCartney. Other tracks eschew pop constraints in favor of multi-section rock operas that dig deeper into themes of youthful confusion, loneliness and self-reflection most successfully achieved with Hodgson’s “Hide In Your Shell” and Davies’ “Rudy.” More than any of their other albums, Crime turned the competing personalities of the band’s two principal members into a strength, often trading verses within a song to play characters off each other as in a stage play.

Additional music for this Deluxe package comes in the way of Supertramp’s show at London’s Hammersmith Odeon in March 1975, the same place and year that witnessed the transformation of another emerging musical act into an international phenomenon. Circulating in bootleg form forever, these tapes are finally seeing a rightful official release, capturing a band just at the point of blossom. Every song from Crime was performed here, as were about half of what would soon become their next album later that year Crisis? What Crisis? And just for kicks, Helliwell sings the 1949 Perry Como hit “‘A’ You’re Adorable.”

By the time of the group’s first official live album Paris (1980), this was a well-polished stage performing machine. However, the revelation of the 1975 show is that they had already achieved that level of symbiosis then. Considering that the studio versions were meticulously put together, they seemed to have no problem recreating the magic in front of an audience, and without needing to contort the character of the songs, they often added even more life to them.

That’s particularly true of Davies’ songs, which in original form sometimes felt a little too tedious and disjointed. Here, they bristle with more emotion and Davies’ jazz chops come alive (this rendition of Crisis‘s “Another Man’s Woman” thoroughly kicks the studio version’s ass). Siebenberg is another performer whose star shines even brighter in concert; he plays very closely to the melody and the vocal, bolstering songs like “Asylum.” He’s the opposite of John Bonham, exactly what this band needed. Helliwell cuts loose more on tenor sax when he’s on stage; he’s frisky and funky on the “Bloody Well Right” outro, for example.

The overall musicianship invested in their concerts as captured on the Hammersmith show pointed to the band’s inclination to make records to promote their tours instead of vice-versa, opposite of the way most of the other rock acts of that era did it. And yet, from Crime of the Century on, they sweated the details inside the studio, too.

Those looking for 5.1 Surround Sound or an accompanying DVD of the live show will still be left wanting and the hard-core Supertramp fans will already have the boot of the Hammersmith Odeon date, anyway. Everyone else who wants a faithful document of an album that transformed a band from mediocre and unknown to outstanding and famous have much to relish with this well-done celebration of one of the greater rock albums from the golden era of great rock albums.

The deluxe edition of Supertramp’s ‘Crime of the Century’ goes on sale December 9, 2014 via Universal Music Enterprises in CD, digital download, and 180g vinyl varieties.

S. Victor Aaron