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Camel - Rain Dances CD (album) cover

RAIN DANCES

Camel

 

Symphonic Prog

3.65 | 1146 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

thesimilitudeofprog
4 stars Rain Dances was the fifth studio album by the English progressive rock group Camel. It was originally released in 1977 and brought a major change in the band's lineup by replacing bassist Doug Ferguson with ex Caravan member Richard Sinclair and adding saxophonist Mel Collins formerly of King Crimson. Expectations for this album must have been very high back in 1977. The band had established themselves as major players in the Prog scene having released a string of four excellent albums Camel self-titled, Mirage, The Snow Goose and Moonmadness. All witch gathered a strong fan base and attracted critical acclaim.

This album marked a first in a series of changes in personnel. Doug Ferguson having decided to leave the band due to musical differences mainly with drummer Andy Ward, who wanted the band to take a jazzier approach. Ferguson was replaced by EX- Caravan bassist singer Richard Sinclair. This would be the first of two albums that would feature wind instrument player extraordinaire Mel Collins previously of King Crimson. Rain dances is an excellent album, it would also mark the beginning of a low point in Camels career. The album opens with one of my favorite Camel instrumentals First Light. First Light is a superb song very well written with amazing melodies from Collins on sax and Lattimer on guitar. Barden's keyboard parts are very atmospheric, reminiscent of Pink Floyd. Ward's drumming is tasteful, precise and filled with subtleties. Following First Light we have a song called Metronome. This would be the first song which Sinkler would sing as Lattimer would do backing vocal parts. There is a great instrumental moment showcasing an amazing melodic interplay between Lattimer and Collins. Following Metronome is the beautiful ballad Tell Me. The definite highlight of this song is the fretless bass. Following Tell Me we have the song called Highways of The Sun. This should have been a big hit single for the group. Now if we flipped over the record, we would have a song called the Uneven Song. It has always sounded like Supertramp to me especially the keyboard work. It is a wonderfully constructed song brilliantly executed with a very beautiful instrumental ending. Following Uneven Song, we have a song called One of These Days. I'll be honest with you; this isn't my favorite song on the album. It is well played and has some great jazz flavors, but I do find this song somewhat boring and underwhelming. The next is a song called Elka. It is a hypnotic number. I really love Brian Eno's collaboration on this one, so you can imagine it has an atmosphere all its own. The keyboards are the highlight here and this is a personal favorite of the album and in the top three of my favorite Camel songs. The album closes with two instrumentals. Skyline's is the first, a very jazzy number with an incredible bassline throughout as well as good playing for everybody else. Finally, the last song on the album is the title track Rain Dances, which is a short instrumental that uses a theme from the opening song First Light but played differently. It ends the album on a good note and even with the few weak tracks on the album it makes you want to play it all over again. Rain Dances is an excellent album and would be an excellent addition to anybody's prog rock collection but not essential.

Rating-80%

Recommended Tracks: Tell Me, Elke and Rain Dances.

thesimilitudeofprog | 4/5 |

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