MOONMADNESS

Another excellent album by Camel, just about on a par with Mirage though I regard Mirage as just edging it. After the vocal-less Snow Goose, Camel return to the pattern of mixing instrumentals with songs with vocals in about equal measure. There are a couple of inferior tracks here, namely Aristillus which doesn't do a lot for me but which is mercifully short, and Another Night. But the other tracks more than make up for these shortcomings.

The best tracks in my opinion are Song Within A Song and Lunar Sea, the latter being up there with Lady Fantasy as one of Camel's best. The middle section, with Peter Barden's swirling synth sounds over the top of a simple repeated bass line, always gives me goosebumps. An honourable mention too for the short but beautiful Spirit Of The Water, just piano, vocal and flute. The bonus tracks on the 2002 and 2009 Decca remasters include the demo for this song which omits the flute and vocals, and that too is a lovely sounding piece.

Talking of the bonus tracks, the live versions of Song Within A Song and Lunar Sea are worth having, the former because it has lead guitar playing the flute parts, and the latter because the synth sounds are different to those on the studio version. The other bonus tracks, the single version of Another Night and the live version of one of the less interesting sections of The Snow Goose, I could happily manage without.

4.5 stars from me, rounded down as I didn't want to give it the same star rating as Mirage.