I CAN SEE YOUR HOUSE FROM HERE

Wait, wait wait! For all those ready to throw the stone upon this one! Just remember the times , this album was relesead and imagine the pressure Camel had to bare! Imagine, being in Latimer's seat after a ten year (almost) career and you are obliged to produce a hit single because your contract is loosing grip... What do you do? You do this album which is a perfect balance between your roots and the commanding reality of your record company... Of course, being so much pressured causes side effects and this can be seen in this album as it can be seen on The Single Factor Album. But just be patient and start the album.. Wait, wait, wait! Is this one a pop song...well i hope pop was always like this one! Listen carefully this well crafted song and the excellent mini moog solos by two of the most underestimated keyboard heroes mr Kit Watkins and Jan Schellas, not to mention the solid sound of mr Bass and the wiseful drumming. Yes, i hear you say... this album is a disgrace comparing to the Mirage album or The Snow Goose album or th Moonmadness album... All right then... i will pass the pop elegant graceness of Your Love Is Stranger Than Mine with the lyrical saxophone solo by mr Collins (Mel, of course), the ambient tendencies of Kit Watkins's Eye Of The Storm and the pop-prog Who we Are (what an intro for a pop song!), Survival, which is a just a wonderfull glimpse to full symphonic music...i won't say anything about Hymn To Her-prog purists please open your ears for this one and listen to the excellent mid section solos and what comes a little bit after those solos, how more symphonic rock can it be? Ok, two songs coming after this one...Neon Magic, well Uk were doing the same thing a little bit proggier i suppose or am i wrong...all right Neon Magic is ,if you take out mid section , a very prog music section for the times, just quite odd for Camel tradition...of course Remote Romance is a a kind of a joke for me, joke for Camel themselves too, being ironic to their times they were having as 30something years old men then...i hope you understand what i am trying to say...some of you remember those times with the punk explosion, or the arise of the new wave movement or the first steps of electronica and so on...Camel made an experiment on this one , not quite bad for the kind of music Remote Romance represents. And finally we come to the great finale, the song that alone itself worths the buy or the listen for this album. Few words for this masterpiece-just let yourself flow in this one, have chills with every single note played by mr Latimer, be spaced out with the mini moog solo and again have chills with all the notes played by this very , very , very special guitarist mr Andrew Latimer. Last but not least, is one of the "teachers" of drumming, so much underestimated, the one and only Andy Ward! Ice, is an excellent example of intelligent drumming, for those who can hear and understand! To prog purists-you are right! this isn't Moonmadness, but it isn't 1976, it is 1979, do you remember? ok, for you, two star rating album, i can see your point! But as an album itself and the times released...a four star rating! Ice, itself, deserves the full five stars!