THE SNOW GOOSE (RE-RECORDING)

It's hard to fathom as why Latimer has decided to do this, which is practically Camel doing a Camel cover. Furthermore, is it possible to improve upon one of the greatest prog classics of many decades?

Many of us regard the original line-up as superior to later incarnations of Camel, that is basically Latimer & Co. Make no mistake, he has always been a superb musician and over the years his skills on the guitar kept getting even better. This however wasn't fully matched by the quality of material released since the 80's. Perhaps that's the reason for reaching back of about four decades ago?

Remaking a virtually perfect piece is fraught with danger, it's like playing with fire. To the credit of the musicians, they manage to successfully copy the vintage Camel sound, but the question remains as what's was the point?

Very close to the original with some minute changes, the odd omission of a well-known note/sound in places neither add, nor detract substantially from that. Nothing like drastically reworked versions of "Tubular Bells".

On the face of it, it's no better, or worse than the original and thus, it would fit the Collectors/Fans category alas, awarding only 2 stars would be an insult here. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Camel plays Camel as the end result is convincingly professional, something that deserves a much higher rating - if only for the effort.

The conclusion is that if one is happy with the original "Snow Goose" then this version represents little more than curiosity value as the numerous live performances of parts of this material were quite sufficient. Rather, a quality remaster would have been more preferable. Had this been entirely new material then I'd call it a masterpiece. As is, it remains a great, but unnecessary rendition.