Even in the Quietest Moments...

Though all the songs are credited as being written jointly by Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson, Davies wrote "Lover Boy", "Downstream", and "From Now On" by himself, and Hodgson in turn wrote "Give a Little Bit", "Even in the Quietest Moments", "Babaji", and "Fool's Overture" unaided.[3]

Davies said of "Lover Boy" that "I was inspired by advertisements in men's magazines telling you how to pick up women. You know, you send away for it and it's guaranteed not to fail. If you haven't slept with at least five women in two weeks, you can get your money back." Bob Siebenberg recounted that "Rick had been working on 'Lover Boy' for quite a while and finally came up with the long middle section. I just heard that as a really slow, really solid sort of beat, just to give the song dynamics underneath it all, because the song itself is really powerful and it needed something really solid underneath it."[3]

Most of "Even in the Quietest Moments" was written during the sound check for a show at the Tivoli Gardens (in Copenhagen). Davies and Hodgson worked out the various parts of the song with Hodgson seated at an Oberheim string synthesiser and Davies at the drum kit.[4] Davies commented on the music: "It starts off in a very standard melody thing and then it notches onto a sort of one chord progression or perhaps we should call it a digression. It's a thing where there's hundreds of sounds coming in and going out, a whole collage thing."[3] Hodgson said of the lyrics: "It's kind of a dual love song – it could be to a girl or it could be to God."[3]

"Downstream" is performed solely by Davies on vocal and piano, which were recorded together in one take. Siebenberg has described the song as his favourite on the album "because it's so personal and so pure."[3]

"Fool's Overture" had the working title of "The String Machine Epic", and according to John Helliwell: "It came primarily from a few melodies that Roger had worked out on the string machine thing we use on stage."[3] Hodgson has stated that the song's lyrics are essentially meaningless, explaining: "I like being vague and yet saying enough to set people's imaginations running riot."[3]

This album is unique in the Supertramp discography as none of the songs features the band's trademark Wurlitzer electric piano. However, a Fender Rhodes piano was used during a short section of "From Now On".

The front cover is an unusual photo of an actual snow-covered piano and bench with a scenic mountain peak backdrop—an actual, but gutted, grand piano was brought to the Eldora Mountain Resort (a ski area near Caribou Ranch Studios)—which was left overnight and photographed after a fresh snow.[5] The sheet music on the piano, though titled "Fool's Overture", is actually "The Star-Spangled Banner".

A remastered CD version of the album with full original artwork, lyrics, and credits restored (including the inner sleeve picture of the band absent from the original CD) was released on 11 June 2002 on A&M Records in the US.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[6]
Christgau's Record Guide	C+[7]

In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau remarked that, unlike most progressive rock, which is "pretentious background schlock that's all too hard to ignore", the album is "modest background schlock that sounds good when it slips into the ear."[7]

Allmusic gave a mixed retrospective review of the album, calling it "elegant yet mildly absurd, witty but kind of obscure," but adding that it "places a greater emphasis on melody and gentle textures than any previous Supertramp release." They criticised the album as not being "full formed," but marked "Give a Little Bit," "Lover Boy," "Fool's Overture," and "From Now On" as worthy of praise.[6]

All songs credited to Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson. Listed below are the actual writers, also lead singers of their songs.

The 1997 and 2002 A&M Records reissues were mastered from the original master tapes by Greg Calbi and Jay Messina at Sterling Sound, New York, in 1997 and 2002. The reissues were supervised by Bill Levenson with art direction by Vartan and design by Mike Diehl, with production coordination by Beth Stempel.

Both the 1997 and 2002 remasters are heavily criticised by audiophiles who claim they were mastered too loud as part of the "loudness war" mastering trend. Also the song "Lover Boy" was edited and is missing a couple of bars.