MIRAGE

This is the first Camel album I've heard and bought right back there in 1983 and I was really enchanted. From the emerging arabian flavour cover and deep inside into the music this album traveled me to some enchanted places upon Camel's magically woven flying carpet. As for the album itself, this is a step ahead for Camel-while their first album was a, sort of , collection of songs showing Camel's wide orientation, Mirage comes out more as a concept album and songs more focused around a basic musical trend. There are two highlights-Lady Fantasy and Nimrodel/The White Rider. Those two songs are classic symphonic prog songs- nice basic theme, smooth progression and structure, exchange of varied musical themes turning from atmospheric to bombastic and more substancial strong melodies and song writing. Freefall is a strong opening track with some jazzy drops in the middle part and is followed by the haunting and dreamy Supertwister which for me is one of Camel's best songs-the song theme is really wonderful and the whole atmosphere of the song has captured the essence of the arabian tales of 1001 nights-excellent song!(with a very humorous and fitty end) Last but not least is Earthrise which is another atmospheric song with a great song theme and the duel of soloing between Latimer and Bardens. Mirage still remains after all these years as one of my favourite albums and one of the many I am never getting bored when listening to-still emerges all the nice memories of youth... 4.5 stars really!