Supertramp: Crime Of The Century (half-speed mastered, 180g) [A&M]

Why you'll love it

This 50th anniversary edition was half-speed mastered at Abbey Road Studios and pressed on 180g vinyl. In Canada the album went diamond, a million copies, and it made Rolling Stone's list of the 50 greatest prog rock albums.

This edition

• 50th anniversary edition
• Half-speed master
• 180g vinyl
• Remastered
• Pressed in Germany

About the album

Every band needs one believer, and Supertramp had a Dutch millionaire named Stanley August Miesegaes, who backed them from 1969 to 1972 and got the album's dedication for his trouble. When Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson rebuilt the group around drummer Bob Siebenberg, saxophonist John Helliwell and bassist Dougie Thomson, A&M sent the new line-up to a 17th-century farm in west Dorset to rehearse.

What came out of it is a tight, theatrical record, with Ken Scott co-producing and every piano and sax part polished to a shine. "School" opens with that lonely harmonica and builds to a classic piano break, "Dreamer" bounces along on Hodgson's Wurlitzer and went top 15 in the UK, "Bloody Well Right" became the American radio favourite, and "Hide In Your Shell" and the closing title track go big and orchestral. It was the band's first album to chart in the United States.

It also went top five in the UK and Germany, and Canadians have never really put it down since. A song called "School" that generations of teenagers have played instead of doing their homework is the kind of irony we're happy to stock.

Also at Kops: more Supertramp on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On A&M, a reissue of the 1974 album.