Crisis? What Crisis?

For the British newspaper headline, see Winter of Discontent.
Crisis? What Crisis?
Studio album by Supertramp
Released 14 September 1975
Recorded Summer through Autumn 1975
A&M Studios, Los Angeles, CA
Ramport Studios and Scorpio Studios, London, UK
Genre Progressive rock
Length 47:24
Label A&M
Producer Ken Scott, Supertramp
Supertramp chronology

Crime of the Century
(1974)		 Crisis? What Crisis?
(1975)		 Even in the Quietest Moments...
(1977)

Crisis? What Crisis? is the fourth album by progressive rock band Supertramp, released in September 1975.

Overview

Crisis? What Crisis? was recorded in Los Angeles and London. This is the first Supertramp album to have recording done in the United States of America.

A remastered CD version of the album was released on 11 June 2002 on A&M Records. The remaster features the original artwork and credits plus lyrics to all of the songs, which the original release lacked.

Record Mirror included Crisis? What Crisis? on its end-of-year list for 1975, recognising the best albums of the year.[1]

Background and recording

Having achieved commercial success with Crime of the Century, the pressure was on for Supertramp to deliver a followup, and the record company pushed them to begin work as soon as the touring for "Crime" was finished. While touring the west coast of North America, Supertramp unintentionally gained extra time: Hodgson injured his hand, forcing the band to cancel the rest of the tour and leaving them with nothing better to do than work on the album.[2] Despite this, the band still didn't have time to rehearse for the album, and much like Indelibly Stamped, songwriters Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson had no vision for a completed album worked out.[2] Furthermore, the band's busy touring schedule had left no time for writing songs, and so they entered A&M's Los Angeles recording studios with only leftover songs from Crime of the Century (or even earlier) for material.[2] Due to shortage of material, production had to be halted at one point so that Davies and Hodgson could write two new songs, one of which was "Ain't Nobody But Me".[2]

Both the title and the concept of the cover were conceived by Davies, as John Helliwell recounted: «It was Rick that came up with the name Crisis? What Crisis? and one day, when we were sitting around Scorpio Studio, he came in with this sketch of a guy in a deck chair under an umbrella with all this chaos going on around him.»[2] "Crisis? What Crisis?" is a line in the film The Day of the Jackal.

Four of the songs ("Sister Moonshine", "Another Man's Woman", "Lady", and "Just a Normal Day") were performed live before the tracks were recorded and released, as documented on the BBC recorded performance of the band playing at The Hammersmith Odeon in London in March 1975 and were included on the 2001 release Is Everybody Listening?.

Hodgson was unhappy with the album, describing it as a rushed job with none of the cohesion of Crime of the Century.[3] Bassist Dougie Thompson concurred: «We thought that the Crisis album was a little bit disjointed and the band as a whole at that time didn't really like the album.»[4]

Another track recorded for the album but left off due to time constraints was "You Started Laughing" which was released as the B-side to "Lady". A live version would surface on the 1980 live album Paris.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [5]

Rolling Stone panned the album in their brief review, ridiculing the lyrics in particular.[6]

Allmusic thoroughly commended the album in their retrospective review, praising Rick Davies's keyboard work, Roger Hodgson's vocals, and John Helliwell's saxophone. They especially noted the emotionally powerful songwriting, which they felt gave the album a "warm personality and charmingly subtle mood."[5]

Track listing

All songs written by Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson, with lead vocals by Hodgson unless otherwise stated.

Side one

  1. "Easy Does It" – 2:18
  2. "Sister Moonshine" – 5:15
  3. "Ain't Nobody But Me" – 5:14
    • Lead vocals: Rick Davies
  4. "A Soapbox Opera" – 4:54
  5. "Another Man's Woman" – 6:15
    • Lead vocals: Rick Davies

Side two

  1. "Lady" – 5:26
  2. "Poor Boy" – 5:07
    • Lead vocals: Rick Davies
  3. "Just a Normal Day" – 4:02
    • Lead vocals: Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson
  4. "The Meaning" – 5:23
  5. "Two of Us" – 3:27

Personnel

Production

2002 A&M reissue:
The 2002 A&M Records reissue was mastered from the original master tapes by Greg Calbi and Jay Messina at Sterling Sound, New York, 2002. The reissue was supervised by Bill Levenson with art direction by Vartan and design by Mike Diehl, with production coordination by Beth Stempel.

Charts

Peak positions

Chart Position
Australian Kent Music Report[7] 20
Canadian RPM Albums Chart[8] 12
Dutch Albums Chart[9] 11
New Zealand Albums Chart[10] 6
Norwegian Albums Chart[11] 10
Swedish Albums Chart[12] 16
UK Albums Chart[13] 20
US Billboard 200[14] 44

Year-end charts

Chart (1976) Position
Australian Albums Chart[7] 85
Canadian Albums Chart[15] 85

Certifications and sales

Region Certification Sales/shipments
Canada (Music Canada)[16] Platinum 100,000^
France (SNEP)[17] Gold 100,000[18]
Germany (BVMI)[19] Gold 250,000^

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone
xunspecified figures based on certification alone

References

  1. ↑ End Of Year List. Record Mirror. 1975. Archived at rocklistmusic.co.uk
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Melhuish, Martin (1986). The Supertramp Book. Toronto, Canada: Omnibus Press. pp. 84–93. ISBN 0-9691272-2-7.
  3. ↑ (2009). 30th Anniversary Supertramp Feature, In the Studio.
  4. ↑ Melhuish, Martin (1986). The Supertramp Book. Toronto, Canada: Omnibus Press. p. 120. ISBN 0-9691272-2-7.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Crisis? What Crisis? at AllMusic
  6. ↑ Altman, Billy (29 January 1976). Album review, Rolling Stone.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  8. ↑ "Top Albums/CDs - Volume 24, No. 21" (PHP). RPM. 21 February 1976. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  9. ↑ "dutchcharts.nl Supertramp – Crisis? What Crisis?" (ASP). Hung Medien (in Dutch). MegaCharts. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  10. ↑ "charts.org.nz Supertramp – Crisis? What Crisis?" (ASP). Hung Medien. Recording Industry Association of New Zealand. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  11. ↑ "norwegiancharts.com Supertramp – Crisis? What Crisis?" (ASP). Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  12. ↑ "swedishcharts.com Supertramp – Crisis? What Crisis?" (ASP). Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  13. ↑ "Supertramp > Artists > Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  14. ↑ "allmusic ((( Crisis? What Crisis? > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums )))". allmusic.com. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  15. ↑ "RPM Top 100 Albums of 1976". RPM. 8 January 1977. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  16. ↑ "Canadian album certifications – Supertramp – Crisis". Music Canada. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  17. ↑ "French album certifications – Supertramp – Crisis, What Crisis" (in French). InfoDisc. Retrieved 1 June 2012. Select SUPERTRAMP and click OK
  18. ↑ "Les Albums Or :". Infodisc.fr (in French). Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  19. ↑ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (Supertramp; 'Crisis? What Crisis?')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie. Retrieved 1 June 2012.