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Cannonball
Still In Love
No Inbetween
Better Days|
Brother Where You Bound
Ever Open Door
With Roger Hodgson departed for a solo career, keyboardist/ vocalist Rick Davies assumed control of Supertramp’s musical direction and continued with the rest of the line-up that had been together since Crime Of The Century.
With Brother Where You Bound, that meant for a unique Supertramp album, with Davies running the show, writing all the music and lyrics on a a collection of six songs that proved the band could still function without the guy who’d written most of the hits.
Cannonball and Still In Love have Davies’s piano to the fore, with plenty of horns thrown in for good measure, while No In Between is darkly atmospheric. And just edging Better Days, the highlight is the thunderous 16-minute title track featuring Thin Lizzy’s Scott Gorham and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour on guitars.
Brother Where You Bound was only moderately successful and produced no hit singles. But, more importantly, for Davies in particular, it was identifiably a Supertramp album. An atypical Supertramp album, perhaps, but also one of their strongest.
Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute.
Other albums released in May 1985
- Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits
- On A Storyteller's Night - Magnum
- Soldiers Under Command - Stryper
- Power of the Night - Savatage
- Shaken 'n' Stirred - Robert Plant
- Seven Wishes - Night Ranger
- The Confessor - Joe Walsh
- The Return... - Bathory
- Hellbound - Warlock
- Fear No Evil - Grim Reaper
- Le Parc - Tangerine Dream
- Loose Nut - Black Flag
What they said...
"The fantastic title track examines Cold War paranoia and clocks in at more than 16 minutes; after the creepy opening narration taken from George Orwell's 1984, the song becomes a composite of several complex prog-rock "movements." Pink Floyd's David Gilmour contributes the searing, distorted guitar solos. Unfortunately, Brother Where You Bound never received the attention it deserved; it isn't a perfect album, but it was a gutsy project for Supertramp to take on." (AllMusic)
"Davies ends off the LP with Ever Open Door, a song many have interpreted as a call from Davies, urging Hodgson to come home. Though he never did, the album stands as a marquee for any progressive rock fan, especially the second side. Perhaps one of the greatest arrangements in Supertramp’s history. Though the album is not a complete one, side two alone makes for an excellent listen for any fan of music." (Sputnikmusic)
"A shock awaits the listener the first time he hears this album: Cannonball is a very unlikely Supertramp song with its infernal groove and a very 80s-ish rhythm, but that track got a lot of airtime on FM radios, and an abridged version was released as a single. After an average Still In Love, Davies hits the right spot with the poignant No In-Between, a song where Rick bares it all with plenty of emotions." (Prog Archives)
What you said...
Philip Qvist: One day during the Covid Lockdown, I decided to play Supertramp's Brother Where You Bound as well as Roger Hodgson's The Eye Of The Storm and see how they compared against each other. I liked both, but I felt that if you had taken the best of both and put them into one, then you would have had one fantastic Supertramp album. It is a pity that Rick and Roger were never able to settle their differences, because together they created some great moments.
Still, you can only play with the hand that you have been dealt with, and without his songwriting partner, Rick Davies still managed to bring out a pretty fine album. It is definitely not a Crime Of The Century or a Breakfast In America, but it is a solid album in its own right, and easily beats later releases by Supertramp.
The best songs are the opening track, Cannonball, Better Days and the 16-minute epic that is Brother Where You Bound (complete with Scott Gorham and Dave Gilmore on guitars). Still In Love is quite a solid song, while the other two songs have a bit of a filler feel to them. Not bad, just okay.
The rest of the band is also on hot form, especially John Helliwell on sax. Brother Where You Bound is quite possibly the band's most underrated record, and it will be getting a 7 from me. And finally RIP Rick Davies - thank you for all those Supertramp memories.
Mike Canoe: I'll be honest, I proclaimed Supertramp the worst rock band in the world for a long time. A lot of that had to do with the ubiquity of Breakfast In America and other radio staples like Dreamer and Give a Little Bit. The lyrics were earnest to the point of strident and the music made me think of them as Jethro Tull's uncool younger brothers (not that Jethro Tull was all that cool in the early 80s either).
But then co-vocalist and co-writer Roger Hodgson quit and a leaner, tougher Supertramp announced themselves with the incredibly cool first single and opening track, Cannonball. The rest of the album was a little too dour for teenage me but, while nothing tops Cannonball, I have a much better appreciation of it now.
The lead sax of John Helliwell is excellent and engaging throughout, more jazz adjacent than dreaded 80's "bar sax" and Rick Davies's songwriting is generally strong and delivered with just the right dose of bitters. An epic like the title track was a bold move at a time when several of the big-name 70's prog bands were courting an unapologetically more streamlined pop sound.
Brother Where You Bound may be my favourite Supertramp album because it sounds the least like "radio hits" Supertramp, but no one ever said music fandom was logical. I'll see myself out.
Patrick Maerthesheimer: Very underrated!
Lee Jones: You finally get to hear how Scott Gorham would sound with Supertramp after they turned him down in 1974.
Chris Mincemoyer: Solid album. Cannonball, the title track and Better Days. Great driving album!
Michael John Hill. Great album.
Greg Schwepe: Even before Supertramp’s Brother Where You Bound was selected as this week’s CRAOTW album to review, I had given it multiple listens in the previous week. Unfortunately, as more and more musicians pass from this Earth, I may end up listening to their band’s catalogue for a day or two. So, that was the case with this one.
While no musical rookies here in the U.S., Breakfast In America put them on the map big time. Famous Last Words also got airplay, but the dent was not as big as its predecessor. So now, with Brother Where You Bound, we have the loss of a prominent member in the form of Roger Hodgson. Would Radio care? Would the U.S. record-buying public care? Or even know?
And for me, that question gets answered in the first two minutes of the album with Cannonball. Singable lyrics, bouncy, inviting keyboards, a little percussion, a little sax, and yes… it’s a Supertramp record!
Still In Love follows with some thick, juicy sax to lead off. And yes, it’s still a Supertramp record!
What I’m trying to convey here is that if you already liked Supertramp, this has got everything you liked about them. There’s no “let’s try something totally different to alienate our fan base with something super weird.” Again? It’s a Supertramp record.
The 16-minute-plus title track is a nice little adventure. And hey, you get two bonus guitarists playing on this one. You have the spacey leads of David Gilmour and Thin Lizzy’s Scott Gorham on rhythm guitar. Kind of ironic as I think I read in an interview once that Gorham moved to the UK from California to try out for Supertramp. Evidently, he didn’t get that gig, but was able to end up in a band that rocked a little more. Worked out for him after all.
This album fits in fine with the rest of the band’s catalogue. Again, nothing odd or way different from other albums they’ve put out. And do you notice it’s really only one guy singing all the songs? Not really. Just a nice collection of songs by a kind of faceless, but talented band. 8 out of 10 on this one for me.
Warren Bubb: I'd given up on Supertramp after Famous Last Words, having enjoyed their previous albums. Never bothered with this one, and it seems that I hadn't missed much. Cannonball is a decent opener, and Still In Love and No Inbetween are OK. After that, the quality dips badly with the title track taking an age to get going and never really getting anywhere over its 16-plus minutes. Only a 4/10 for this one.
John Davidson: Opener Cannonball was something of a surprise. It's not the Supertramp of Crime Of The Century or Breakfast in America; in fact it seems to take inspiration from the British soul/pop revival of the mid-80s. (best examples of which are Simply Red's Holding Back the Years and Sade's Smooth Operator) .
Still In Love" is a decent tune despite the saxophones, and No Inbetween has a bit more edge, even if it sounds a little like an Al Stewart song. Better Days" dips its toes into political commentary, counterpointing the smooth sax with clips of politicians telling us that everything is great (it wasn't)
Title track "Brother Where You Bound" tickles the itch for a prog epic, with more samples (quotes from 1984) and a very sinister vibe. Most importantly, it has guitars! (featuring none other than Scott Gorham and David Gilmour). Easily the best track on the album.
Supertramp were never one of my go-to bands. They were too pop for prog, occupying that sophisticated 'clever' pop genre like ELO and Alan Parsons Project. The new wave artists who ploughed a similar furrow (like XTC) generally hid their cleverness behind a sneer, but Supertramp predated that and remained earnest rather than witty. With Hodgson gone, the vocals and lyrics do have a more satirical edge at times
Even now, as an adult with broader taste, I can't fully get past the fact that Supertramp are a keyboard band, and after the departure of Hodgson, they didn't even have a part-time guitarist in the band. For me, classic rock is a genre where guitars are everything.
All in all, this isn't an album that I would ever choose to listen to, even if it it's made slightly more interesting by the cameos from Gorham and Gilmour. A 5/10 , maybe a 6 for the two guests.
Gary Claydon: I make no apology for repeating my oft-stated view that the late 70s/ early 80s was the most memorable period in UK music history. The stars aligned, creatively, culturally and socio-politically, to produce a maelstrom of diversity and innovation. It ushered in a golden period of British pop music. The likes of Costello, Squeeze, Joe Jackson, XTC, The Specials & many more produced a wave of whip-smart, street-savvy pop.
1979 saw the release of London Calling and Unknown Pleasures, of Replicas and Armed Forces, yet the year's globally best-selling album belonged not to any uber-cool, enfant terrible of the pop and rock world, nor even to its established superstars. No, it belonged to a band that looked like a bunch of early 70s history graduates who peddled a line of somewhat nerdy prog-pop and soft-rock. I speak, of course, of Supertramp.
If that sounds disparaging, let me make clear, I don't mind Supertramp one little bit. Crime Of The Century is a very good album, and Breakfast In America is an excellent one, but let's be honest, they were never really exciting & certainly never a band you would describe as cool. In their heyday, though, they produced some interesting and enjoyable stuff.
All of which leads me to Brother Where You Bound, the first Supertramp album sans-Roger Hodgson, which meant that the band were now missing not only his more pop-oriented songwriting but also his distinctive vocals. While Hodgson's voice was always a little divisive, I quite miss his falsetto as a contrast to Rick Davies' raspy, lower register, which, while still pretty decent, is somewhat deadpan, even slightly monotonous.
Minus Hodgson's songwriting, Brother Where You Bound makes an unsurprising and, at times, welcome step back to Supertramp's earlier, more prog-inclined output. Unfortunately, overall, it doesn't score any bullseyes. It feels disjointed, and there is a distinct feel of filler about a few of the tracks. The energetic and enjoyable Cannonball makes for a neat opener, but the only other thing of real note here is the epic title track, which makes a clear nod to Crime of The Century days.
It's not a bad album, but nor is it particularly engaging. The fact that the most interesting and most often stated facts about Brother Where You Bound are the absence of Hodgson and the identity of the guest guitarists on the title track, kinda sums it up. 5/10
Brian Carr: Let’s face it, there is no voice in rock and pop like Roger Hodgson’s, but despite the uniqueness, it certainly has the ability to be irritating. So it’s a testament to how well-crafted their tunes on Breakfast In America are that I love that album so much.
Even with Hodgson’s departure leaving vocal duties to the more palatable Rick Davies, there are still aspects of Brother Where You Bound that can lead me into a rather ‘meh’ response. The lack of guitars can make for a hard sell. The lengthy tracks open the door for an overstayed welcome. More specifically, my immediate thoughts toward album opener Cannonball were “this song is going to be annoying.”
But as with Breakfast, ultimately Brother Where You Bound proved to be a fairly enjoyable listen. Cannonball won me over primarily with the instrumental breaks (complete with whip cracks?!?). There are enough interesting parts that keep the longer tracks from devolving into boredom territory. The limited guitar made the guitar moments really stand out (of course, the fact that David Gilmour plays on the title track helps, too). I’m not sure how often I might seek out Brother Where You Bound, but I liked it enough that it could happen.
Gus Schultz: While never being a big Supertramp fan, especially during my youth, I had come to appreciate them more in my older years. With the exception of Breakfast in America being everywhere back then, I enjoy listening to the previous albums on occasion.
Brother Where You Bound just doesn't have the same appeal as the material with Roger Hodgson on it. It very much sounds more like a Rick Davies solo album, with the exception of the title track coming a little closer to their sound, albeit a little long in the tooth. This album is just a little too heavy with early 80s production and sound, lacking Hodgson's voice, songwriting and guitar, though nice to hear David Gilmour and Scott Gorham on the title track, which is why I think that song appeals to me.
This album is unremarkable to me, and IMHO, no Roger Hodgson= No Supertramp, and I think Rick Davies sensed that disbanding after the next album. It may have been best to leave Famous Last Words as their final album, as the title was perhaps appropriate. That being said, Rick was an extremely talented musician, and Supertramp would not have been successful without him as well. RIP Rick.
Final score: 6.83 (58 votes cast, total score 396)
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