THE SNOW GOOSE

Well this album is certainly a prog rock classic if there ever was one. Camel´s third album The Snow Goose is one of the most famous albums in prog rock. Does it deserve the praise and all the positive words then ? hmmm...I´m not sure. IMO this is a good album, but it´s not more than that. I like both Moonmadness and Mirage much better than The Snow Goose. An almost pure instrumental album is a bit hard to swallow for me and always has been. There are very few pure instrumental albums that I enjoy enough to either find excellent or even call masterpieces and this is certainly not one of them.

The music is a bit more easy listening than their previous album Mirage which I thought had a bit of an edge to it that I really enjoyed. Of course Camel isn´t the most edgy band in the world, but at least there were a few parts here and there on Mirage where I was intrigued by the mood ( for example the last part in Nimrodel). There is no edge to The Snow Goose, it´s just a pleasant listen all the way through which is fine sometimes, it just doesn´t rock my world to be frank. There are lots of nice guitar, flute and keyboard melodies which are the dominant lead instruments on The Snow Goose. The music is symphonic prog rock with the emphasis on melody and emotion.

The musicians are very good. They are very tight and there is nothing wrong with their technique or talent. Latimer and Bardens dominate the soundscape but both Doug Ferguson and Andy Ward also play a vital role. Andy Ward has always been one of my favorite drummers from the seventies and here he plays some of his best parts.

The production is nice, soft and pleasant. A typical seventies production in the professional end.

So what´s all the fuzz about ? well I can understand peoples excitement over The Snow Goose as it is a pretty original album for the time, but personally I´m not that excited. So the conclusion for me is a 3 star album. I´ll recommend Camel´s debut, Mirage and Moonmadness over this one.