A variant of progressive rock that some have called sophisto-rock, Supertramp never really broke any new ground - beginning with Century, they just produced a consummate trio of albums confirming that meaningful music doesn't have to be obscure and that listen-ability is preferable to the pursuit of originality for the mere sake of originality.

Century wasn't their first album. I still have the vinyl versions of their eponymous debut and their follow-up "Indelibly Stamped". However, Century was the first album to bridge prog for the masses, mixing the layered instrumental harmonics of the prog genre with the hooks and melodies of mainstream rock. The result is an album that progerati will often denigrate as a "sellout", "prog lite" or "dumbed down". Ignore such arrogant snobbery. Century is an inspired album with some truly captivating songs. It starts with one of the most sublime of album intros: "School" is not only a brooding musical statement with a memorable instrumental midsection, but provides an intelligent counterpoint to that other prog anthem, Floyd's "The Wall", making a more thoughtful protest than the trite, "...We don't need no education". Throughout their careers, Supertramp railed against the creativity-stifling straightjacket of rote schooling, but there is a stark clarity and clean simplicity to "School" that sets it above their later efforts in tracks like the "Logical Song".

The remaining songs are just as well crafted. Hide In Your Shell, Dreamer and Rudy decry the isolation that pervades modern culture. Bloody Well Right attacks bloody mindedness. Crime of the Century, the titled album track, rounds things off with a biting indictment: "Who are these men of lust, greed and glory?/Rip off the masks and let's see./But that's not right - oh no, what's the story?/There's you and there's me/That can't be right..."

Want to make the world a better place? Start with the face you see in the mirror.

Any band willing to confront hypocrisy this frankly is worth listening to. And when the message is combined with such fine musicianship, the result is an album of major stature.

A final note on the quality of the recording: make sure you purchase this digitally remastered version. I own both the older A&M disk and the newer one and the difference is like night and day. The murky sludgy sound of the prior effort was a terrible insult to the vinyl original, but this new one sounds, if anything, better than its progenitor.

Many of the reviews so far have indulged in reminiscencing about the 1970s, discussed the clarity of the sound, or compared the band to Pink Floyd, the Beatles, or other musical influences. Very few have mentioned anything regarding the subject matter of the songs, as if there's nothing more to them than catchy tunes and a singalong chorus. I'd like to encourage future listeners to dig deeper into the words, because this is one of the best actual "concept albums" (an overused term) ever released. A concept album is more than just an album cover, a marketing campaign, or the band deciding, "Let's try something different this time." It's a thread running through ALL of an album's songs - they're linked by a story, a recurring idea, or at the very least similar themes.

Crime of the Century's "concept" is the HUBRIS, or fatal flaws, of mankind. There are 8 total songs, 2 each of 4 different themes. For each of the 4 themes, Roger Hodgson offers the viewpoint of the introvert, followed by Rick Davies "answering" with the viewpoint of the extrovert on the same theme. The 4 themes are as follows:

1. PARANOIA: "School" and "Bloody Well Right" deal directly with the pressure exerted on individuals by academia, media, the political world, and even one's peers to conform to an idealized standard.

2. MENTAL ILLNESS: "Hide in your shell" and "Asylum" illustrate individuals who, having been failed by the aforementioned institutions, begin to lose their grip on reality when they have been denied love, trust, and respect.

3. SELF-DECEPTION /DISILLUSIONMENT: "Dreamer" and "Rudy" are about individuals who retreat into fantasy (sometimes of their own making, sometimes those of others) because they have nowhere else to turn to, only to be "awakened" when the fantasy doesn't last.

4. SELF-DESTRUCTION: "If everyone was listening" and "Crime of the Century" show mankind's fallen nature in the worst way - continuously making fatal choices, ignoring anyone who would sound the alarm, and looking for anyone but themselves to blame for their own foolishness.

While a bleak picture has been painted, never once does the album turn to despair or lapse into the morbidity and depression of the Prozac-rockers. The "message" seems to be that if we can begin by recognizing and admitting to our flaws, we can at least be prepared to deal with them and prevent them from stealing what is good about humanity: our capacity to love, create, and carry on beneath the shadow of death.

Messages aside, other commentators have written of the uniqueness of Supertramp's sound, and they are exactly right. Name another band that sounds like Supertramp. While not their very best album (I would vote for Crisis? What Crisis?), Crime of the Century is truly a timeless work of art that will be analysed and enjoyed for a long time to come. And it's one of the best-produced (credit: Ken Scott), detail-oriented albums ever! On "If everyone was listening", listen (especially with headphones) to the 3 notes on the ride cymbal when the vocal begins: left-channel, right-channel, left-channel. Fabulous!

Supertramp's "Crime of the Century" was the first record I ever bought (back in 1981), and for good reason. For the Supertramp fan (or any fan of classic and progressive rock), this album encapsulates all that is Supertramp (moving, multiple textures of music - electric, acousic, orchestral; lyrics poetically spelling out their frustrations with modern - back then - British society; great artwork; the first album with the "classic" lineup and an overall package from School's harmonica beginning to the title track's harmonica fade-out that entertains and compels). Just how great is it? Seven of the album's eight tracks are featured on the band's live album "Paris" recorded six years later (that starts with, what else, "School" and ends with "Crime of the Century"). The only song not included live, "If Everyone Was Listening," is as significant as all the rest, because each song transitions seamlessly to the other until what we are left with as "Crime of the Century" fades to a starless black is a musical experience that fuses everything in its existence so perfectly that Supertramp would never duplicate it again. Rick Davies' piano (best heard on "Rudy"), Roger Hodgson's guitar (likewise "Bloody Well Right"), Dougie Thomson's bass ("School"), Bob C. Benberg's drums ("Crime of the Century") and John Anthony Helliwell's sax/clarinet (all of them) remind us that Supertramp was a BAND, a concept so few groups could claim (then or since). A classic and a standard, an album that shaped my entire views on rock and roll and influenced my every record purchased thereafter for years to come.

The first album were Rick Davies recruited a functioning, workable, contributing band, is also (in my opinion) their greatest. With the now complete lineup of Davies, Hodgson, Siebenberg, Helliwell and Thopson, Supertramp riffed off into stardom with their first big hit album and possibly their most celebrated.

Crime Of The Century consists of two stories, which both took place respectively on their original LP sides, side one consisted of School, Bloody Well Right, Hide In your Shell, and Asylum. Side Two was Dreamer, Rudy, If Everyone Was Listening, and Crime of the Century.

Side one was the story of the charachter Jimmy Cream, his youth, coming of age, and eventually, insanity. His story bears very creepy similarities to that of Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett.....

Side Two is about Rudy, a quiet, brilliant and corrupted person who eventually commits the 'Crime Of The Century.'

This is the closest Supertramp got to Pink Floyd, and to me, they did much better. They found a defined style and stuck with it for latter albums, however those latter albums (save 'Brother Where You Bound') didn't seem to stick to that sound.

Definitely a must have for Pink Floyd lovers, Supertramp lovers, prog and art rock lovers, and in my opinion, the greatest album of all time.

This is not just Supertramp's best record, it's also one of the greatest all-round rock records of the early '70s. Unfortunately, it would be all downhill for the band from here.

"Crime of the Century" pulls off the idea of a "concept" album with out coming off as overblown, pretentious or cliched. Each song, in fact, seems to be its own little self-contained rock opera.

The band had not yet sunk into the ubiquitous falsetto that plagued latter efforts like in "Crisis? What Crisis?" and the cloying "Breakfast In America." The songs themselves on "Crime of the Century" are relatively lengthy pieces layered and textured with tempo changes, movements, and other effects. (By the time they recorded "Breakfast In America" three years later, they were reduced to writing three-and-a-half-minute pop songs rife with lyrical cliches with a glossy production sheen so luminous that it bleached way what little passion the songs may have had.)

That was not the case with "Crime of the Century." The songs here are dark, ansgst-ridden and a bit cynical. Songs like "Hide In Your Shell," and "Ayslum" deal with coping with mental illness and offer such dark-humored lyrics as "Will he take a sailboat ride? He is very likely to. Will feel dead inside? He is very likely to!"

I am particularly fond of "Rudy," -- a Supertramp concert staple and maybe one of their best songs ever. It's a piano-based rocker sung from the point of view of a gentleman who is not sure if he's made the right choices in life ("Rudy's on a train to nowhere... halfway down the line...") and is hoping for some sort of redemption we all know will never come.

The singles here, "School," and "Bloody Well Right," almost seem Floydian in the way they chastise the public education system of the day and rail against its administrators' tendency to try make everyone the same by stripping unsuspecting students of their uniqueness or individuality. The song does a great job of conveying the sense of anger, frustration and resignation such institutionalization creates.

The writing, arranging and playing on "Crime of the Century" is first rate and strikingly original. (Tell me, who do you think Supertramp is being influenced by here? Who are they emmulating? The answer is nobody... they've truly created an original sound.)

After "Crime of the Century," Supertramp released 4 more albums with this classic line-up (headed by writers Roger Hodgeson - guitar, and Rick Davies - keyboards). While most of the albums are good... with each subsequent release the band took another step closer to the "pop" millieau that help sell so many copies of "Breakfast In America."

While we're on that subject... remember ALL rock music is indeed "pop" music... but not all pop music is rock.

But when it comes to "Crime of the Century," there is no doubt that this album rocks with the best of the early- to mid-70s rock 'n' roll canon that included the likes of such lumanaries as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and truck load of other heavy progessive bands.

This is also a great "headphone" album with lots of great piano work, intersting special effects and insightful, thought-provoking lyrics that manage, for the most part, to stay clear of the overly maudline and the cliche.

Hodgeson and Davies also, at this point in their writing careers, had a great sense of melody. So, while the songs' arrangements may be dense and complex, they remain accessable and easy to sing along with. (Which, after a few listens, I'm betting you will!)

When one listens to "Crime of the Century" one can't help but wonder what would have happened if Hodgeson and Davies had managed to get along and the band had stayed the course all these years.

Ah, but that's just rock 'n' roll... Ain't it?