HARBOUR OF TEARS

Am I missing something here? I admit that this is the first album I've ever heard by Camel, so it is entirely possible that their earlier work was not only more important (historically), but better. This particular album sounds like an amalgam of Renaissance, Genesis and Pink Floyd, put through an Irish filter. The female vocals call to mind Annie Haslam (though not nearly so "present" or magnificent), and the male vocals are, admittedly, quite good most of the time. The music, however, is maddeningly inconsistent. When the band is "on" - on songs such as "Watching the Bobbins" (my favorite track) - they are quite good. However, most of the songs are not very compelling. Almost all the guitar solos (of which there are many) are hopelessly derivative of David Gilmour's blues approach (though, I must say, most are quite good just the same). And, guys, let's get real: 14 minutes of nothing but ocean wave sounds does not progressive music make! A couple of minutes, maybe. (And if this were written in the early 70s, maybe a bit more for "tripping out" to). But 14 minutes?! All it did was leave me feeling "robbed" of my time. Still, at the risk of wasting another hour of that time, I'll listen to it again, just to make sure I'm not missing something...