Supertramp: Crime of the Century (A&M SP 3647)

VIRTUALLY EVERY track on this album seems to last twice as long as the actual music warrants, a vastly disproportionate amount of needle time seems to be devoted to pauses which, one guesses, the 'Tramps want us to find rivetingly portentous, but in fact are only tiresome. Because, in addition to appreciable instrumental dexterity, they seem to possess the rare ability to harmonize handsomely: One is rendered sleepless by the desire to lock them in a room with the first few Beatles albums until they're convinced that it's possible to be as dynamic and atmospheric in two-and-a-half minutes as in five.