SUPERTRAMP : IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES

 

Disc One (69:07)

  1. It's a Hard World
  2. You Win, I Lose
  3. Listen to Me Please
  4. Ain't Nobody But Me
  5. Sooner or Later
  6. Free as a Bird
  7. Cannonball
  8. From Now On
  9. Breakfast in America
  10. Give Me a Chance
  11. Rudy

Disc Two (61:10)

  1. Downstream
  2. Another Man's Woman
  3. Take the Long Way Home
  4. Bloody Well Right
  5. The Logical Song
  6. Goodbye Stranger
  7. School
  8. And the Light
  9. Don't You Lie to Me
  10. Crime of the Century

Label : EMI

Release Year : April 12, 1999

Recording Date : September 19 & 20, 1997

Venue : Royal Albert Hall, London, UK

Review (AllMusic) : An expanded version of the conventional 13-song It Was the Best of Times compilation, this two-CD set packs on eight further selections from Supertramp's career to that point, still eschewing their first two LPs, without really adding anything to the portrait painted by the slimmer edition. "Rudy" was always one of Crime of the Century's more overwrought and, therefore, dispensable, inclusions, while tracks like "It's a Hard World," "Give Me a Chance," "Downstream," and "Don't You Lie to Me" aren't exactly the band at its scintillating best. Thankfully, "Ain't Nobody But Me" and "Another Man's Woman" do capture Supertramp at their quirky finest, while the addition of the closing "Crime of the Century" remedies one of the original compilation's most alarming omissions.

Review (Wikipedia) : It Was the Best of Times is the third live album by the English rock band Supertramp, released in April 1999. The album title makes use of the opening line from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. It Was the Best of Times was recorded in September 1997 at the Royal Albert Hall, London, England, UK during the "It's About Time" tour (set up in support of the Some Things Never Change studio album). The band includes vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Mark Hart performing songs originally sung by Roger Hodgson. Supertramp are also augmented by additional players added for this album and tour which later would also take part in the recording of Slow Motion, the follow-up studio album released in 2002. The 2-CD version features the song "Don't You Lie to Me", a blues song that the band had performed on their 1988 tour and the only song not written by a current or former band member. The single CD version was later re-released in 2006 under the name of Live, 1997. Reviewing the double CD edition, Allmusic wrote that in comparison to the single CD version, "...this two-CD set packs on eight further selections from Supertramp's career to that point, still eschewing their first two LPs, without really adding anything to the portrait painted by the slimmer edition."