THE SNOW GOOSE

The Snow Goose is Camel's release from 1975. The album is completelt instrumental, which I don't think is a bad thing, as I don't think Camel has very good lead vocals. The album is very atmospheric. By this I mean that it's full of soft interludes and returning themes. Also I should mention that this is a concept album, and the whole album is one big journey.

The music on the album varies from short pieces that are meant to create some mood, like "Sanctuary", "Friendship" and "Preperation" to longer, more comlex songs like "Rhayader Goes To Town", "The Snow Goose" and "Dunkirk". Camel did really well on both sorts of tracks. The shorter ones really give the album a fitting mood, while the longer ones, that often resemble important moments in the story, could easily impress one because of their complicated composition, brilliant musicianship and emotional moments.

Atmosphere is incredibly important to the album, and is what makes this album unique. If one doesn't like the atmoshere of the album, he'll probably won't like the entire thing. The album has many themes that sound very much like other themes on the album. Also songs like "Preperation", "Dunkirk" and "Epitaph" have clear feeling of being far from only seperate songs. This is because of a mysterious theme, appearing in "Preperation" and "Epitaph" kind of surrounding the epic "Dunkirk".

One could dislike this album because of its focus on atmosphere over constantly moving and over-exciting music, but I like it. People liking a blend of symphonic music with a lot of soothing atmosphere and mood might really enjoy this album, so I really recommend it to those people. The Snow Goose is definitely worth four stars, as it's a fantastic album though not a masterpiece.