Supertramp - Breakfast in America (Half-Speed Master)

Supertramp's best-selling album gets a collector's polish, with Breakfast in America cut from a half-speed master and pressed on 180-gram vinyl.

Released in 1979 as the band's sixth studio album, it was recorded at The Village Recorder in Los Angeles with Peter Henderson co-producing alongside the band. The project started out as a concept piece about the contrasting outlooks of Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson before loosening into a run of brighter, sharper pop songs. Plenty of listeners heard it as a sly portrait of America, though the band have said that was never the plan. It went on to spend six weeks at the top of the US album chart.

The two songwriters split the spoils between them, and both are on top form. Hodgson brings The Logical Song, driven by a bouncing Wurlitzer electric piano and his unmistakable high tenor, as well as the wistful Take the Long Way Home. Davies counters with Goodbye Stranger, all falsetto hooks and easy-rolling groove. John Helliwell's woodwinds add color and wit across the record.

Then there is that cover: a diner waitress posed as the Statue of Liberty, orange juice raised high, in front of a Manhattan skyline built from kitchen supplies. It is witty and immaculately made, which describes the music just as well.