MIRAGE

There are a few questions coming up with this famous Camel album. First of course: is this yes or no a true masterpiece. Looking at ratings and reviews the crowd is divided obviously. Personally I will go along with Mellotron Storms rating in the end: 4,5 stars. So it's close but just not there in my opinion.

Second question: is this Camel's finest ? Right now Moonmadness' rating is actually higher but this is just momentary. For a long time Mirage was clearly Camel's magnum opus. My secret fav has always been their debut but I agree that objectively the three successors are probably better. And if I have to make a decision I will proclaim Mirage as most impressive work.

It will have something to do with the presence of a true epic of pretty high standard, my preferred style of progressive song. Such a track is missing on Moonmadness and The Snow Goose. The other four songs are all very much worth while as well as far as I'm concerned. So that explains the 4,5 stars. All tracks are between 4,25 and 4,75 in my opinion. But ultimately this is not enough for the masterpiece status I feel. So I will round down to 4.