Crisis? What Crisis?
	Produced by Ken Scott and Supertramp
	Released on November 1975
	UK CHART POSITION #20 . . . US CHART POSITION #44
	Find it at GEMM
SP-4560 cover [high resolution photo]

A fter eating so many flat and flavorless tramps (Paris, Stamped, Famous Last Words), finally a bum I can sink my teeth into. Crisis? What Crisis? is christmas come early: ten progressive pop songs patterned on the eccentric masters (10cc, The Kinks, Wings). It’s not progressive rock, never was, but it is ambitious and tuneful. The first side feels like a concept, especially when “A Soapbox Opera” rolls around. That it follows the wonderful “Ain’t Nobody But Me,” which followed the fine “Sister Moonshine,” which followed the charming “Easy Does It,” makes for one of the most perfect sides of plastic in the Supertramp collection (I’d even give it the nod over the second side of Breakfast). I haven’t heard Crime; maybe that’s much better (Quietest quite frankly baffled me). Personally, Crisis came at a perfect time. I was beginning to think that Supertramp just had the one good album (Breakfast) and a few good songs (“Dreamer,” “Bloody Well Right,” “Give A Little Bit”). But this album is loaded with wonderful boobytraps the likes of which I hadn’t heard on a pop album since Sheet Music or Venus and Mars. That Crisis doesn’t contain any big hits actually worked to its advantage, since it made every song on here a new discovery for me. If you arrived late for Breakfast, you need to go back to Crisis. It’ll help you form an appreciation for the band’s pop artistry, much moreso than an Indelibly Stamped anyway. And while I usually take pains to tell you that Supertramp isn’t a prog band, “The Meaning” reminds me a lot of Gong and, I will concede, qualifies as a prog song. If I find a few more like “The Meaning,” I may change my mind.

SP-4560 back cover

TRACK LISTING

1. EASY DOES IT    2:17
2. SISTER MOONSHINE    5:15
3. AIN'T NOBODY BUT ME    5:12
4. A SOAPBOX OPERA    4:50
5. ANOTHER MAN'S WOMAN    6:20
6. LADY    5:24
7. POOR BOY    5:08
8. JUST A NORMAL DAY    3:49
9. THE MEANING    5:21
10. TWO OF US    3:29
    
    All songs written by Roger Hodgson and Richard Davies

CREDITS

BOB C. BENBERG -- drums and percussion
RICHARD DAVIES -- vocals and keyboards,, album design concept
JOHN ANTHONY HELLIWELL -- wind instruments and vocals
ROGER HODGSON -- vocals, guitars and keyboards
DOUGIE THOMSON -- bass
Richard Hewson -- orchestral and choir arrangements
Ken Scott -- engineer
Fabio Nicoli, Paul Wakefield, Dick Ward -- album design

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