I CAN SEE YOUR HOUSE FROM HERE

See that guy on the cover? That is what should have happened to Andy Latimer after this record was dropped. However, not being much of a prophet, Andy remaind on the planet and actually managed to reconcile with prog rock fans a few years later. Howeverever, being somewhat of a prophet, I predicted this would happen! Sure, go ahead and say that I was alive at the time to really predict this. Maybe I was chronologically going through the groups releases without reading anything about them! How will you ever know!?

Anyway, this album is the nadir of Camel's output, comprised of extremely commerical songs, and mediocre ones at that. I don't care if it's PROG or not like some, but I do care if it's good, and this my acquaintances (at best) is not good. I don't want to get into how bad this is, but I'll say a few more words. The jazzy rockin' Camel makes a couple of cameos, and the final track "Ice" is a decent instrumental with some powerful guitar work, but those moments don't redeem this album in the least. The group has put out better instrumentals and better guitar solos and jazz-rock passages, and better everything before this album. At the very least, go with this album's predecessor, "Breathless," if you want to hear some decent Camel-goes-pop. This is an album to avoid.

As with many of the 70's symphonic prog bands, Camel decided to venture into pop territory for a bit, and as with many of the many 70's symphonic prog bands, they bombed. But unlike Genesis or Renaissance, the band recognized the error of their ways and started redeeming themselves as soon as their next record. Of course, they will never reach the heights of Moonmadness or Mirage, but at least they won't be ending with a streak of albums like Invisible Touch, We Can't Dance and Calling All Stations.