RAJAZ

Camel closed out the 20th century with this very good, and even sometimes great album. At this point the band was, of course, Andy Latimer, with ling time members Ton Scherpenzeel on keyboards and Colin Bass on himself, er... I mean bass, and Dave Stewart (no... not that guy... or that one either) on drums, along with a few extras.

The album starts on a high note. Three Wishes, an instrumental, comes of as a light fusion/symphonic piece, that stands up with some of Camel's best instrumentals. Lost And Found and The Final Encore follow. Both of these are fine symphonic pieces, that only suffer from a little too much borrowing from classic Genesis in instrumental arrangement.

The tone then gets mellower with the fine title piece, but stumbles on the banal Shout. Straight To My Heart is somewhat better, a folky tune with a low groove, similar to what Jethro Tull was doing around that time. Sahara is a gem, starting out like a Jeff Beck ballad, and building into a great showpiece.

Lawrence is a mostly disappointing closing track, but does build nicely by the end.

A solid three star album, but how many bands have produced better albums after over 20 years of recording?