BREATHLESS

Breathles is one of those often maligned prog albums of the late 70s but for me this one and 'Raindances' is the place to go if you happen to miss the classic Caravan sound, they lost after 'For girls...' Right from the start warm Sinclair's voice in slighly jazzy and pretty title track gives you welcomed Caravan impression. Camel and Caravan were never far away from each other (look at the names of the bands!), so the Sinclair inclusion was a perfect blend. Second track at the begining is more upbeat and even more jazzy, particulary in bass parts (Sinclair again). Later it slowes down and becomes more gentle for a moment to be more rocking after a while. Latimer's vocal and guitar brings enough classic Camel into equation to please an old fan in me. The next track is more caravanish, on a jazzy side again with a touch of pop-oriented melody (which again is not unusual thing for Caravan) and Collins on sax and flutes. Lovely! 'Down on the farm' seems to be a dividing track. Starts as a rocker, but soon reveals it's funny melody with goofy lyrics and sound effects. This Sinclair's track wouldn't be out of place on Caravan's "In the land of grey and pink" and Collins' flute fits well. What a charming song! Closing song on the A side of the vinyl is very gentle and fairytale-like (flutes) with nice slide guitar licks and a bit of a early music feel. Second side starts with 'Summer lightening'. I was a bit scared knowing beforehand it contains strong disco rhytm but it's not as bad as I feared. Sinclair's voice, jazzy piano and bass parts with nice guitar solo are enough to make this track quite listenable. So far so good! And then comes 'You make me smile'. The weakest track of the album. Discoish again and with funky bass, but with very little to save it from mediocrity. It's not terrible. There are some vocal bits that are nice and keyboards manage to bring some more familiar sound here and there, but as a whole it's definitely out of place here. With 'The sleeper' Camel is back on it's feet (toes?). It's mostly upbeat and jazzy instrumental with brilliant bass parts and some saxes, one of the longest tracks (just above 7 minutes) and one of the most busy ones. Welcomed redemption for the previous disco-funky track. The last one is a pleasant ballad, thankfuly not to much pop oriented to spoil the ending, just mellow and pretty enough to end the album in a nice way. Solid 4 stars from me.