Supertramp’s acclaimed third album Crime Of The Century was a worldwide hit, however its success introduced stress to bear on the band. Certainly, the London quintet had barely accomplished the next tour earlier than A&M Data had been demanding they return to the studio with producer Ken Scott to start work on their subsequent document Disaster? What Disaster?
“Crisis? What Crisis? came to mean more to us as a title than it did to other people, because it really was a crisis album,” vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Roger Hodgson confessed in an interview with U.Okay. rock weekly Sounds in 1977. “We learnt how not to make an album coming right off the road and going into the studio. We had a lot of bad luck in the studio. We really didn’t enjoy making it and in the end it was kind of a patch-up job.”
Hindsight, although, suggests Hodgson’s critique was unnecessarily harsh. Sure, Disaster? What Disaster? put Supertramp within the invidious place of making a brand new album from scratch (give or take a few leftovers from Crime Of The Century), however as additionally they had two of probably the most dexterous and nuanced writers in 70s rock in Hodgson and vocalist-keyboardist Rick Davies, they’d all of the expertise they wanted.
Accordingly, whereas its songs could have been born from stress, the listener struggles to detect it, as Supertramp’s versatility and guile are stamped throughout Disaster? What Disaster? Two of Hodgson’s finest, the deceptively languid, George Harrison-esque “Easy Does It” and the happy-sad, woodwind-assisted “Sister Moonshine,” instantly set the bar excessive, however Davies ably responds with a pair of sturdy, blues-rock exercises in “Ain’t Nobody But Me” and the admirably funky “Another Man’s Woman.”
Elsewhere, the band showcases its collective talent in melding mainstream pop and progressive rock tropes on the epic six-minute “A Soapbox Opera” earlier than breaking new floor on the jazz-inflected “Poor Boy” and signing off with one in all Hodgson’s loveliest songs, “Two Of Us”: a delicate, stripped-back ode to endurance which makes for the right postscript to an adventurous document.
Regardless of Supertramp collectively feeling that corners had been minimize through the making of Disaster? What Disaster?, when the album was launched in November 1975, followers fortunately accepted it because the superb follow-up to Crime Of The Century it at all times was.
Its gross sales fell slightly wanting its illustrious predecessor, but it surely nonetheless made the U.Okay. Prime 20 and the Prime 50 of the U.S. Billboard 200 — and it capped off a greater than respectable efficiency by rewarding Supertramp with an additional flurry of gold discs. It’s cemented its popularity by remaining a fan favourite, with Supertramp’s personal notion of their troubled creation even mellowing over time.
“Actually, Crisis? What Crisis? funnily enough is my favorite album,” Roger Hodgson enthused in a 2015 YouTube interview with Rock Antenne. “It didn’t do as well, because it didn’t have a hit single, but as a collection of songs I love it. It’s my favorite Supertramp album today.”
Store for Supertramp’s music on vinyl or CD now.
