Helluva Deal

One of the great albums of all time is now available for download for $2.99. Three bucks. If you count tax, you can't buy a fast-food lunch for that.

But, it'll get you Breakfast in America by Supertramp.

Now, it's unlikely that you don't already have this in some form, but if you don't have MP3s of it, and haven't heard this baby in a while (or ever - if you're young enough not to have heard of it), I think you'll be surprised how well it stands up.

I put it on about 3 weeks ago while cooking dinner expecting it to be one of those old favorites that would be more of an embarrassment now and worthy only of secret trips down memory lane. Heck no, it's still as affecting and brilliant as it seemed back in the day. "The Logical Song" in particular seems as though it could've been written just this year, given the lyric: "Now watch what you say or they'll be calling you a radical, liberal, fanatical criminal."

If you scroll through the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" thingy on the Amazon page, you'll notice all the other great 70s and early 80s classics that are comparable.

Supertramp was one of those groups who were fastidious about how their music sounded in its final form. Cassettes (they used to sell pre-recorded cassettes, kiddies) always had the latest technology. I think they even put out a version in "metal" - the last big-deal format of cassettes before CDs took over. Amazon's MP3s are at 256 kbps (a high sample rate), so I've been very impressed with the sound. So Breakfast in Amerca is bound to sound amazing. Going through the reviews, I notice many of them mention the superior sound quality - probably because Supertramp won over a lot of audiophiles with their insistence on recording quality.

If you've been resisting buying music in digital form, this might be the time to finally give it a try.