THE SINGLE FACTOR

Considered to be Camel's worst album, "The Single Factor" has a surprising bit of backstory for an album this deep in a band's back catalogue. Released after 1981's "Nude", its creation was rather forced by Decca Records, which demanded Camel release an album that focus more on commercially appealing rock songs. Guitarist Andrew Latimer, effectively the leader of the band at this point, did not want to release an album, as he was hoping to recoup the band after drummer Andy Ward's failed suicide attempt, which was kept under wraps at the time. In the liner notes, it says that Ward is absent due to a "hand injury". With a contractual obligation to be fulfilled, Latimer took to the studio to basically create Camel's least contrived album, with an assortment of songs that the band's official website even declares to be "odd".

For those who were dissatisfied with Camel's emulation of the Alan Parsons Project over the past few albums, "The Single Factor" will definitely disappoint, as Latimer actually enlists members of APP to play on this album. The story goes that as Latimer was getting ready to work on this album, APP was in the same studio, and over some friendly conversation, he was able to get both vocalist Chris Rainbow and bassist David Paton to feature on this album, as well as original Genesis guitarist Anthony Phillips on mainly keys but some guitar too. A silver lining of the dramatic roster change was that Camel's long-running problem with finding competent vocalists was fixed. Both Rainbow and Paton do contribute some vocals, and can operate at higher registers to allow for some more unique tracks in Camel's catalogue. Paton's main vocal contribution in particular, on the song "Heroes", is perhaps the highlight of the album, and continues the tradition of strong pop prog tunes that we saw with "Drafted" on "Nude" and would continue to see on the band's next album "Stationary Traveller". I will admit, I did not expect to leave this album with a song I would consider replaying, but "Heroes" ended up being that song, even if it is more APP than Camel.

With that said, Camel still at least tries to throw a couple bones at their older fans with some remotely progressive instrumentals. In fact, Latimer is able to bring back Peter Bardens on keyboards for a cameo appearance on the instrumental "Sasquatch", another positive takeaway from the album even if in the general context of Camel instrumentals it's quite bland. "Selva" is another quaint yet short instrumental which draws on the emotive themes of 1979's "Ice". The situation for the band at the time is alluded to in some of the music, especially the light-hearted "Camelogue", and even the album title itself ("The Single Factor" can refer to Latimer being the sole original member remaining, or the fact the album was made just to create singles).

There are really no ways to mince the obvious upon listening to "The Single Factor", which is that it's painfully mediocre. It's not a bad album in the sense that the musicianship is awful, but rather the album is uncontrived, which is unsurprising given the circumstances. Songs like "No Easy Answer" or "You Are the One" are uninspiring throwaways, bland smooth rock that wouldn't interest anyone, even the target audience Decca was looking for. Songs such as "Manic" are just weird. Ultimately, a lot of the album suffers from this malaise, and it's why this album is Camel's worst album. The few bright spots do not make "The Single Factor" a listenable album, but rather an album which has a more interesting backstory and roster of musicians than actual songs. I would be hard pressed to even call this a Camel album if by this point the band was effectively Latimer's band; no Colin Bass, Andy Ward, or Mel Collins effectively stripped any sort of identity from the album, making it an oddball in the discography.

I was conflicted in how I would rate "The Single Factor". While the backstory is interesting and I understand why this ended up being such a bland album, I don't think it is fair for me to give Camel leniency just because of unfortunate circumstances. This is a band that we know is capable of churning out decent albums, even in the context of the 1980's. Fortunately this album did turn out to be rock bottom, as Decca likely saw the writing on the wall and gave Latimer more creative control for 1984's "Stationary Traveller". Ultimately, I feel like this album has just enough listenable material and effort put in to barely avoid a one-star rating, with "Heroes" and "Sasquatch" being highlights. I only recommend it for people who want to complete listening to Camel's discography; there really isn't too much here, and as far as I know, only "Sasquatch" was carried over into the live shows.

OVERALL RATING: 1.5/5

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