RAJAZ

Rajaz is not only the best post Moonmadness album from Camel, but its simply one of the best prog albums of the 90s. Dust and Dreams and Harbour of Tears, were just confused sounding, weakly produced middle of the road albums that surely would have made me lose interest as a Camel fan in the 90s. But a couple minutes into Three Wishes should be enough to change any mind.

The cover pretty accurately describes what you'll be getting into here. A very deserty often mellow sounding album. Every track is great in its own way, but first i'd like to say that Andy got the production back down for this album. Gone is the sterile 90s sound of the previous two albums. We open with what I consider a Camel classic in Three Wishes, the opening minutes set the mood. Out of the deserty atmosphere, those signature Camel drums come rushing at you quickly followed by the unmistakable tone of Andy Latimer. Its just one of those songs that get you excited. Every note Latimer plays is part of a memorable melody and that goes for many songs on this album. Expanding on Latimers guitar, every song generally has a guitar solo that keeps you feeling high throughout. I really like the second track Lost and Found. The jam section in that song is pure bliss, a feeling I haven't got from a Camel song since... maybe Echoes off Breathless. The Final Encore starts diving more into the main themes of the album, even slowly introducting the main melody of the title track (which is coming up!). Andy opens the song with the line "After words, and long goodbyes," referencing the final album before their disbandment Stationary Traveler (I believe those two songs closed the album). What follows is the title track, oh man, the title track. Me and a buddy were hanging out and I put this on, half way through the song he goes "what is this? This is amazing!" And you know what, he's damn right. The song is written to the meter that a camel walks, you can close your eyes and picture the Camels walking along Latimers beautiful solos. Now whenever we are together, that's always the first song that gets played. Shout and Straight to the Heart expand on this deserty vibe and are really nice tracks for the album. I especially have to give credit to the solo on the later, its explosive entrance reminds me of the ending solo in Pigs off the album Animals. In my opinion though, the two greatest guitar moments appear in the two final tracks, Sahara and Lawrence. Sahara is an instrumental track and once it takes off it never lets up. Lawrence ends the album with another song that starts mellow, but builds and builds to possibly the biggest solo on the album.

This album is very significant to me and simply has not lost its magic after probably a hundred listens.

9/10