FURTHER THAN YOU KNOW

The sound of this album is still very similar to its close predecessors, in particular to Speed of Light, but there's more singing and the newage flavor of the 80s seems to be gone, at least in the music. The lyrics are still a bit newage, effectively.

It's a sweet and melodic album, surely better than his previous efforts. A bit too easy listening for my tastes but surely not bad. Without considering the latin "Coco Loco" that's close more to the pre-Camel albums than to the 80s, it makes me think to Alan Parsons. This is very strange because Peter left Camel when they started playing like Alan Parsons clones (with some of former Alan Parsons members) at the end of the 70s.

Regardless this curiosity this album can be considered the rebirth of an artist that was unable to make impressive music after leaving his former band, even if he's a very skilled keyboardist and has demonstrated to be an excellent composer during his work with Camel.

The best thing of this album are these which are more distant from the electronic newage of the 80s, so other than Coco Loco I think a highlight is the title track with its calipso/caribbean rhythm and the following "This Could Be Heaven" that even if clearly reminding to This could be Paradise from Speed of Light (a follow-up effectively) appears fresh and has something of the old good Camel times.

The closer "Rain Talk" is unexpectedly Floydian and creates an atmosphere very in line with its title. A whole album of this kind would have been a masterpiece.

I'm happy to rate it 3 stars after having been a bit harsh with the previous three albums. It should be 3.5, really because it's more than good but only in the second half.