Supertramp were an 8-man British band whose music has spanned the genres of rock, progressive rock, and art rock. Formed around founder Rick Davies, the band's work is marked by the use of spiritual and philosophical lyrics and the distinctive voice of co-founder Roger Hodgson - who appeared on the majority of the band's biggest hit singles.

'Breakfast in America' was the bands sixth, and most popular and successful album, and ws originally released in March 1979. It reached #3 on the UK Album Charts and #1 in the US - where it stayed on top for six weeks.

It yielded the hit singles 'The Logical Song,' 'Take The Long Way Home,' 'Breakfast In America' and 'Goodbye Stranger.' This Deluxe Edition adds a second disc, Breakfast Around The World, containing 12 previously unreleased live recordings from Miami, London and Paris between October and December 1979.

Mostly drawn from Breakfast In America, it also includes earlier stage favorites 'Rudy,' 'Give A Little Bit' and the beautiful 'Even In The Quietest Moments.'

This crystal clear, remastered edition gives us the entire 'Breakfast in America' album as it once once aka both sides create 10 wonderful songs in a row here. First up is the cinematic, and long 'Gone Hollywood,' which brings to the fore immediately Roger Hodgson's high rise vocals!

One of their biggest hits from the album, and probably of their career, 'The Logical Song' is next and boy, even today, some 30 years on this song sounds so good! I remember this song sticking in my mind as a young lad back in the UK and it still (thankfully) lives up to those musical memories today.

The flowing, sedate-rocker 'Goodbye Stranger' is next and makes you realize that this band truly had some great songs in their locker - and that they never seemingly wrote a short song! The fantastic (not an understatement) 'Breakfast in America' breaks out the blocks in fine fashion and along with its multiple sax breaks wins your hips over in seconds flat!

The so-so 'Oh Darling' fills in the middle section of the album, before the well-known, and lovingly swayful 'Take The Long Way Home' comes down the pipe. What another great, loud and still proud track it truly is. The calming 'Lord It Is Mine' is next which is followed by another hit single in 'Just Another Nervous Wreck,' and then the loving, 'Casual Conversations.'

The album, or at least the first disc here, finishes with the fun 'Child Of Visions,' which shows off their use of the early '80s keyboards/piano perfectly! A bit of a long, shall we say elongated track this one, but a lovely way to end a near-perfect album from the day.

Side two gives us a live Supertramp album culled from their 'Breakfast World Tour 1979' (containing 12 previously unreleased live recordings from Miami, London and Paris between October and December of that same year). Hodgson announces, very politely, that the band had just released a new album some six weeks before, and that they'd like to play some songs from it. And so, up first is 'The Logical Song.' But without the beginning sax chrips, and with Hodgson's vocals (seemingly) not as dominatant as on record, the song falls (sadly) somewhat 2-D. 'Goodbye Stranger' is greeted with a lot of crowd love, and as Hodgson (or possibly Davies) makes the crowd aware of where he went for breakfast (and what he had that morning!), he then says it was good, but not as good as ..., 'Breakfast In America'!

The mediocre (always has been for me, sorry) 'Oh Darling' is followed by a band-spoken "police notice" that for safety reasons, they encourage everyone as they leave the show to 'Take The Long Way Home' (geddit?!). The piano-opened, and beat-funky 'Another Man's Woman' is next, and after some near eight minutes of music, Hodgson asks the crowd what instrument he is holding in front of him. They don't seem to know, he informs them it's a clarinet, then intro's a 12 string acoustic guitar, and then puts them both together for a beautiful 'Even In The Quiestest Moments.'

After the applause has died down, the piano-intro'd 'Rudy' is next before Rick Davies actually gets intro'd (on the piano), and goes into his own-sung 'Downstream.' The tempo then gets turned up many notches for a vibrant 'Give A Little Bit,' before the beats gets toned down again for 'From Now On.'

The album finishes with the sax-flowing 'Child Of Vision,' a song that features the dueling voals of both Hodgson and Davies. A brilliant release, yes, but as much as this was always a remarkable group music wise, they had their behind-the-scenes 'scenes.' I mean, you can never be too sure how much conflict was going on behind the scenes on this live CD; as witnessed by every Hodgson song being followed by a Davies one!

That said, the excellent 36 page booklet that accompanies this glorious double album glosses over the war between Hodgson and Davies - as you'd kinda expect, I guess. I mean, although all your Supertramp fans will probably already know this, but Davies fought to call the album something else and objected strongly to the inclusion of the title track!

In closing, this remaster sounds gorgeous - a real improvement over the previous 2003 issue. Rich, broad, clean and vibrant - exactly fitting the music. It just makes you wonder why exactly this reissue missed its 30th Anniversary by a year?!

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