RAIN DANCES

After their first four seminal albums, Camel underwent a change in their previously stable quartet line-up when Doug Ferguson stepped aside due to musical differences with his peers. Both the incorporation of Richard Sinclair (ex-Caravan) on bass and vocals, replacing Ferguson, and Mel Collins (ex-King Crimson) on sax, nourished Camel's sound with more jazz-oriented textures and nuances, conserving progressive details, although it is true that on a smaller scale. The result of this rearranged scenario is "Rain Dances", the band's fifth album.

From the spacey "First Light", where Latimer's crystalline guitars, the sea of effects from Peter Bardens' keyboards (especially the moog) and Collins' elegant saxophone support the track, relaxed melodies run through the album, such as the introspective "Tell Me", with Sinclair contributing his voice in watery mode to create a warmly cloudy atmosphere, or the beautiful fragility of "Elke", well wrapped by Latimer's flute, Brian Eno's keyboards (invited for the occasion), and Fionna Hibbert's harp (also invited), or the agile "Highways of the Sun", a piece of simple auditory digestion.

But Camel's also marked orientation towards jazz demanded instrumental pieces, such as the persistent and carefree "One of These Days I'll Get an Early Night" and "Skylines", where Latimer's prolonged guitar solos, Bardens' keyboards and Collins' saxophone merge and compete for the limelight, sustained by Andy Ward's remarkable fluency on percussion. Finally, "Rain Dances", an orchestrated, pared-down recapitulation reminiscent of the opening "First Light", brings the album to a circular close.

While "Rain Dances" is a more than acceptable album, it did not reach the heights of recognition of its predecessors, partly because of how difficult it was for Camel to sustain the high standard of their previous productions, and partly because of the shift in their musical approach towards more accessible paths.

3/3.5 stars