STATIONARY TRAVELLER

Stationary Traveller is the tenth full-length studio album by UK progressive rock act Camel. Or maybe it´s more right to say what´s left of Camel as the only original member left on this album is Andy Latimer ( guitar, Flute, vocals). Drummer Andy Ward suffered severe alcohol and drug-related problems and had to leave the band before the recording of Stationary Traveller. Paul Burgess plays the drums on this album.

The music is very eighties synth pop/ rock like with AOR kind of vocals ( add a new age elements and it doesn´t get much worse). Very accessible and totally lacking any form of edge or innovative behaviour. I enjoy the musicianship on the album and especially some really great guitar soloing by Andy Latimer but the songs are simply not up to par with their earlier material and I´ve only taken my LP down from the shelf to review it. Ohterwise it would have been stuck there for years and years without ever being taken down for a spin. There are so many other great albums by Camel that I simply pass this one by. Listening to it again for reviewing purposes I fully understand why. As on most Camel albums there are both instrumental songs and songs with vocals on Stationary Traveller and as I really don´t enjoy the vocal style by Chris Rainbow much it´s the instrumentals that´re most enjoyable to me.

Stationary Traveller along with The Single Factor (1982) are probably the weakest albums in Camel´s discography and everyone else but the hardcore fans can safely pass this one by IMO. 2 stars are warranted.