Supertramp - Slow Motion


Year of Release: 2002
Label: EMI Records
Catalog Number: 7243 5 38624 2 8
Format: CD
Total Time: 50:11:00

Why would any football player want to take up cycling? Why would someone who had won a gold medal during the recent Winter Olympics suddenly want to become a karate expert? Do what you do best, that's my point and my point entirely. And that's exactly what Supertramp has done in order to deliver Slow Motion, in other words a fine collection of "logical songs"! My guess is that Rick Davies has dissected all of the Supertramp material to come up with the necessary ingredients to craft these into authentic Supertramp material. However, with the current line-up that has been present since the Some Things Never Change album, the band has evolved into a wider musical spectrum flirting with jazz by means of John Helliwell's saxophone and the trumpet of Lee Thornburg. Add to that the pure rock'n roll approach from Ray Charles' bassist Cliff Hugo and the fine blues of Provogue artist Carl Verheyen and you get a mixture Harry Potter would love to get his hands on for sequels to come.

One note of that patented electric piano sound and you know you're in for a real treat when the title track takes you back to the "vintage" Supertramp sound that was the band's trademark on succesful albums such as Crime Of The Century and Crisis? What Crisis?. When John Helliwell's distinctive saxophone enters the arena it's "good ol' Supertramp" all over again. But will it last throughout the entire album I hear you ask? Let's wait and see. That same electric piano kicks off the funky "Broken Hearted," which has John's saxophone backing the song as if it's a Ray Charles original. Add to that the muted trumpet of Lee Thornburg and the swinging guitar of Verheyen and you can bet this might be a live favourite. "Over You" is a nice laidback, jazzy tune that suddenly introduces some great bluesy guitar courtesy of Jan Verheyen. Having found his new roots in America, Rick Davies certainly has fused his authentic Supertramp signature with some Little Feat licks in the swinging "Tenth Avenue Breakdown." It is the longest track on the album sporting an interesting build up with some marimba in the intro and evolving towards a repetitive pattern with jazzy undertones before finally arriving in the funky department. With "A Sting In Your Tail", "Bee In Your Bonnet" and "Goldrush," Davies delivers a set of mediocre songs that sound more like drafts rather than well-crafted songs. The album closes with "Dead Man's Blues," a long dramatic composition in which Verheyen's guitar fuses with subtle Hammond in the beginning whereas the song evolves into pure jazz once saxophone and trumpet alternate.

All in all Slow Motion is a much better album than Some Things Never Change, but Rick Davies still doesn't deliver the material one would associate with the name Supertramp as we all know and love it. In that respect Roger Hodgson's latest offering Open The Door was more the kind of album a true Supertramp fan might cherish. Maybe Davies and Hodgson should have a drink together, let bygones be bygones and bundle their talents into delivering the ultimate Supertramp album which Slow Motion sadly ain't.


Tracklisting:
Slow Motion (3:50) / Little By Little (4:30) / Broken Hearted (4:28) / Over You (5:06) / Tenth Avenue Breakdown (6:57) / Sting In The Tail (5:17) / Bee In Your Bonnet (6:27) / Goldrush (3:06) / Dead Man's Blues (8:26)

Musicians:
Bob Siebenberg - drums
Mark Hart - vocals, guitars, keyboards
Cliff Hugo - bass
Jesse Siebenberg - percussion
Lee Thornburg - trumpet
Carl Verheyen - guitar

Discography:
Supertramp (1970)
Indelibly Stamped (1971)
Crime Of The Century (1974)
Crisis? What Crisis? (1975)
Even In The Quietest Moments (1977)
Breakfast In America (1979)
Paris (1980/2002)
Famous Last Words (1982/2002)
Brother Where You Bound (1985/2002)
Free As A Bird (1987/2002)
Classics Volume 9 (1987)
Live '88 (1988)
The Very Best of Supertramp I (1990)
Fan Box Set (1991)
The Very Best of Supertramp II (1992)
The Autobiography Of Supertramp (1994)
Some Things Never Change (1997)
It Was The Best Of Times (1999)
Very Best Of Supertramp/Very Best Of Supertramp Vol 2 (1999)
Slow Motion (2002)
Inside Supertramp 1974-1978: An Independent Critical Review (2004)
Retrospectacle: The Supertramp Anthology (2005)
Anthology (2005)
Live, 1997 (2006)
Concert Classics (2007)

Genre: Rock

Origin UK

Added: March 24th 2002
Reviewer: John "Bobo" Bollenberg

Artist website: www.supertramp.com
Hits: 1708
Language: english

  

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