Charts: UK #7, AUS #3, AUT #7, CAN #3, FRA #9, GER #5, NLD #2, NOR #6, SWI #1, US #8. UK, FRA, GER & US: Gold; CAN: Platinum.
Supertramp followed Breakfast in America with this soiree in Paris. I don’t recall ever thinking to myself, “Man, I bet Supertramp would be an awesome live band,” any more than I was interested in hearing 10cc or Alan Parsons Project perform their songs on stage. Which isn’t to say that the band doesn’t do a nice job of thumbing through their back catalog or that the audience in Paris doesn’t appreciate the effort. The sax and guitar solos shine a little brighter under the stage lights, the rhythm section doesn’t miss a beat and the vocals from Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies sound as good as you remember.
The trouble with Paris is that it finds the band in a holding pattern at the peak of their popularity. It would be three years before the band released another studio album, by which time my tastes had already shifted from pop music to new wave. Enough Supertramp fans stayed along for the ride to help both Paris and Famous Last Words chart well, but it many ways this marks the end of an era. Looking back over their last few albums, it had been a great ride. Bloody Well Right, Dreamer, Ain’t Nobody But Me, The Logical Song, Take the Long Way Home, all the highlights are here (with the notable exception of “Give a Little Bit”).
The spoken intros from John Anthony Helliwell, done mostly in French, are a nice touch. So is the selection, which digs deep into popular album tracks such as School, Asylum, Hide in Your Shell and Fool’s Overture. As a treat, the band also slips in an old B side, You Started Laughing. The live mix is good, with enough crowd noise to keep you in the moment and clean editing. I can see where someone familiar with Breakfast in America would want to pick up Paris to navigate their back catalog, although I would point you first to Crime and Crisis. Fans will appreciate what basically amounts to a long curtain call after Breakfast, but for most of us Paris can wait.
(progrography.com/supertramp/review-supertramp-paris-1980/)

Album recorded and mixed in the analog domain - AAD. That is, a minimum of digital processing.
A=Analog. D=digital. The first letter stands for how the music was recorded. The second letter for how it was mixed. The third letter stands for the format (all CD's will have D as the last letter).