| Crime of the Century | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Supertramp | ||||
| Released | September 1974 | |||
| Recorded | Ramport Studios (South London), Scorpio Sound Studios (London), and Trident Studios (London) from February to June 1974 | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock, art rock | |||
| Length | 44:10 | |||
| Label | A&M | |||
| Producer | Ken Scott, Supertramp | |||
| Supertramp chronology | ||||
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Crime of the Century is the third album by the progressive rock band Supertramp, released in 1974. Crime of the Century was Supertramp's first U.S. Top 40 album and was eventually certified Gold in the U.S. in 1977 after the release of Even in the Quietest Moments.... The album, accompanied by the hit single Dreamer, also marked the first evidence of success for the band in the United Kingdom; Crime of the Century itself reaching Number One on the album chart there in 1975, and Dreamer number nine on the singles chart the same year. The album was Supertramp's first to feature drummer Bob C. Benberg, woodwinds player John Anthony Helliwell, bassist Dougie Thomson, and co-producer Ken Scott.
The album's dedication reads "To Sam", which is a nickname for Stanley August Miesegaes, the Dutch millionaire who supported the band financially from 1969-72.[1]
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After the failure of their first two albums and an unsuccessful tour, the band broke up, and Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson recruited new members, drummer Bob Benberg, woodwinds player John Helliwell, and bassist Dougie Thomson.[2] This new line-up were sent by their record label, A&M, to a seventeenth-century farm in Somerset in order to rehearse together and prepare the album.[2][3]
The album was recorded at a number of studios including Ramport Studios (owned by The Who) and Trident Studios with co-producer Ken Scott. While recording the album, Davies and Hodgson recorded approximately 42 demo songs, from which only 8 were chosen to appear on the album. Several other tracks appeared on later albums (Crisis? What Crisis?, ...Famous Last Words...). Hodgson and Davies both stated that communication within the group was at a peak during the recording of this album, while drummer Benberg stated that he thought it was this album on which the band hit its "artistic peak".
Crime of the Century deals loosely with themes of loneliness and mental stability, but is not a concept album.[3] Davies consciously linked the opening track "School" to "Bloody Well Right" with the line "So you think your schooling is phoney", and according to Hodgson, any unifying thread beyond that was left to the listener's imagination.[3]
The sound of the train in "Rudy" was recorded at Paddington station, while the crowd noises in the song were taken from Leicester Square.[3]
| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [4] |
Crime of the Century was Supertramp's first U.S. Top 40 album and was eventually certified Gold in the U.S. in 1977 after the release of Even in the Quietest Moments.... The album, accompanied by the hit single Dreamer, also marked the first evidence of success for the band in the United Kingdom; Crime of the Century itself reaching Number One on the album chart there in 1975, and Dreamer number nine on the singles chart the same year.
In 1978, Crime of the Century was ranked 108th in The World Critic Lists, which recognised the 200 greatest albums of all time as voted for by notable rock critics and DJs.[5] In the 1987 edition of the publication, CBC's Geoff Edwards ranked Crime of the Century the 10th greatest album of all time.[5] A 1998 public poll, aggregating the votes of more than 200,000 music fans, saw Crime of the Century voted among the all-time top 1000 albums,[6] and it was listed in the 2005 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[7]
Many of the songs on the album are still staples of the band's shows ("School", "Bloody Well Right", "Rudy", and the title song). Almost all of the album appears on the band's 1980 live album Paris although the tracks which featured orchestrations on the studio versions ("Asylum", "Rudy", and "Crime of the Century") were replaced by string synthesizers or Oberheim synthesizers, which were played mainly by John Helliwell with some help from Roger Hodgson.
All songs written by Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson.
The first release was on vinyl by A&M Records in 1974. In 1977 it became the first pop music LP title re-issued by the audiophile label Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab. A&M released it as one of their first CDs as part of their "Audio Master Plus" series in the 1980s. Mobile Fidelity also released its own remastered CD version on a gold disc as part of its "Ultradisc" series also in the 1980s.
A new remastered CD version of the album was released by A&M in 1997 followed by a different remaster on 11 June 2002. The newer A&M remasters feature all of the album art restored plus credits and full lyrics which were missing from some earlier editions. Both 1997 and 2002 A&M reissues were mastered from the original master tapes by Greg Calbi and Jay Messina at Sterling Sound, New York, in 1997 and 2002. The reissues were supervised by Bill Levenson with art direction by Vartan and design by Mike Diehl, with production coordination by Beth Stempel.
Both the 1997 and 2002 remasters are heavily criticised by audiophiles who claim they were mastered "too loud" as part of the "loudness war" mastering trend. The 1997 remaster has all tracks peaking at 100 percent, significantly altering the original dynamic range of the recording and effectively adding new distortion to the sound. The 2002 edition is not quite as loud but still has much of the same effect.
The album was re-issued in 2010 by the German audiophile label Speaker's Corner as a 180 gram vinyl LP. This version has received praise from collectors for its outstanding sound and faithfulness to the original packaging. It has none of the dynamic range compression applied to the recent A&M remastered CD versions.
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Billboard Pop Albums | 38 |
| UK Albums Chart | 4[8] |
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | "Bloody Well Right" | Pop Singles (Billboard – North America) | 35 |
| "Dreamer" | UK Singles Chart | 13[8] |
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