Published on Aug 28, 2012
The world’s politest rock band hit it big in 1979 with Breakfast In America, and the best of the album rivaled the band’s best work to date.
While Supertramp’s strongest album remains Crime Of The Century, this one is their most accessible and pop-friendly, and a few of the songs remain in play on classic rock radio today. The band never had a better guitar solo than on the catchy “Goodbye Stranger;” whistles, snaps, and a jaunty air carry a song about one-night stands. It’s the best moment here.
Other hits included the wistful “The Logical Song,” the brief, sarcastic title track (“Not much of a girlfriend / I never seem to get a lot”), and the moody “Take The Long Way Home,” which opens with a mournful harmonica solo before Roger Hodgson’s insistent piano pounding rolls in, followed by a standard tale of life on the road (“There are times you feel you’re part of the furniture…Then your wife seems to think you’re losing your sanity”). All very good songs, although the title track hasn't aged as well.
The opening and closing songs also are strong. “Gone Hollywood” is a jaded look at becoming American and/or general ennui with life, while “Child Of Vision” is even better than most of the songs here. It clocks in at an indulgent seven minutes, sure, but features some of Hodgson’s best piano solos over an insistent beat and a wailing sax solo during the ending jam session. The trade-off lyrics between Hodgson and Rick Davies take a view of a dimming relationship while a two-chord riff and some low-end keyboard solos play in the background.
The rest of the songs are the usual polite, cloying Supertramp fare: harmless and safe, but unfortunately cluttering up the rest of the work. This keeps it from being a wall-to-wall classic like Crime Of The Century, but the best songs here have aged well and remain guilty pleasures from a band with a truly original sound.
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