DUST AND DREAMS

After a seven-year hiatus marred by legal troubles, guitarist Andrew Latimer would usher in a new era of Camel music that would persist until the band's last studio album to date in 2002. Starting up his own record label Camel Productions, Latimer now had unprecedented creative freedom to make whatever music he felt like making, a stark contrast to the forced material seen in the band's more commercial 1980's albums.

In 1987, Andrew Latimer and his wife Susan Hoover would move out of the UK to California. This change in scenery would inspire the album "Dust and Dreams", yet another concept album this time focusing on the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, with a loose theme based on John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath", a monumental novel in American literature lauded for its stunning depiction of the migrant workers who fled the Great Plains seeking fortune in 1930's California. The lineup for this album is reminiscent of the band's 80's albums, with Latimer still being the sole original member of the band. Colin Bass returns as bassist, while keyboardist Ton Scherpenzeel and drummer Paul Burgess stick around from "Stationary Traveller".

"Dust and Dreams" is perhaps Camel's most melancholy album, and fits perfectly within the context of the gloomy nature of the Dust Bowl. Opening up with a solemn and atmospheric introduction, "Go West" properly introduces the theme of the album, and highlights the terrible dust storms which peppered the American heartland, destroying crops and resulting in catastrophe for those living in states such as Oklahoma and Texas. The lyrics are complimented with minimalist piano notes with a slow build up, culminating in the first of many Latimer guitar solos. "Mother Road" is perhaps the album's flagship track, and it's a pretty basic rocker, although it definitely sounds more analog and less like a song intentionally made to be played on FM radio.

Another song of note is the emotional "Rose of Sharon", which features guest vocals of former Camel bassist David Paton and Mae McKenna, and both perform a duet of sorts that follows a steady build up that erupts into perhaps the best guitar solo of the album. This is the kind of deeply emotional and provocative work that we have come to expect from Camel albums, and I feel like Latimer delivers in conveying the proper feelings to the listener. Where "Rose of Sharon" conveys passive hopefulness, "End of the Line" conveys dread, based upon the economic toil of the migrants as they realize that employment was just as scarce in the Golden State as it was in the states they fled. The general atmosphere of this song is one of depression and hopelessness, and once again, Camel succeeds in engaging the listener.

And with "End of the Line", that's the end of the vocals on this track. The entire second half of "Dust and Dreams" is instrumental work, with modern rock themes that still remain progressive in nature. The interplay between Latimer and the rest of his band is fine but I really didn't take anything away of note from the rest of the musicians; a continuing trend from "Stationary Traveller". Perhaps that's the biggest problem with modern Camel; it has become more of the Andrew Latimer band than the band which saw contributions come from at least one member. All songs are written by Latimer, with some lyrical contributions by his wife. I see a lot of people comparing this era of Camel to the solo work of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, but I just struggle to find any correlation besides the reality that they like doing guitar solos. Where Gilmour is more flashy and exotic in his work, Latimer is more emotive, and more prone to writing albums that follow a story.

"Dust and Dreams" is a very fine album to listen to. It's definitely produced with the intention of satisfying a prog listener, and all of the songs are well-composed and link to one another, but in the context of Camel's entire discography it's easily forgettable. There's only a few tracks that really are taken away here and they are hardly seminal compositions. This album is explicitly designed to be listened to in one go, but songs like "Mother Road" or "End of the Line" can be listened to on their own. In terms of a rating, this album is the definition of good, but non- essential. It easily becomes lost in the mix of the band's history alongside its cousin "Harbour of Tears" which would be released five years later.

OVERALL RATING: 3.4/5

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