BREATHLESS

I own virtually ALL of the recorded Camel material, and if I had to compile a Top Five Songs list of the group, two of those five songs would come from THIS album alone: "Echoes" (my favorite Camel song of all time!) and "The Sleeper".

We diehard Camel fans will usually admit that it's the instrumentals that we love most about the band, with vocals only a peripheral element to the music. (Why else do you think we all feel that "The Snow Goose" is their best album?) Both "Echoes" and "The Sleeper" are heavy on the instrumental gymnastics. The few vocals that do appear in "Echoes" are really well-done, and flow perfectly with the rest of the song. The two-part "The Sleeper" is a classic Camel instrumental with odd time signatures and jazz-rock soloing. Clever drums, dancing bass lines, cool synthesizer sounds, and great guitar/sax/keyboard soloing in both songs make them essential songs for the serious Camel collector.

Hey, I'm compulsive enough to have plopped down good money just to own ONE song from an otherwise unnecessary album. But with this album, you get some decent secondary songs to make the whole purchase worth your while, as well as a heavy dose of great sax, courtesy of guest Mel Collins. Some of the "decent" music includes the title track that begins the album, and the three-minute Santana-like guitar outro to "Summer Lightning", which is simply STUNNING (despite the disco drumming). After those, you have some "nice" songs ("Wing and a Prayer" and "Rainbow's End") and the admittedly disappointing, blah, unremarkable ones ("Starlight Ride", "You Make Me Smile", and the Canterbury-ishly tongue-in-cheek "Down on the Farm"). Curses!

This was my very first Camel album purchase back in the mid-70's, so I've always tried to defend my little discovery against the critics. But there's no sense in denying that some commercialism crept into this album on a few tracks, and the album would have to stand behind at least 5 or 6 other Camel albums in terms of overall quality.

Unfortunately for your wallet, you NEED "Echoes" and "The Sleeper".....so buy the album if you can't find them on any other compilations. I'm going with 3-1/2 stars.