SPEED OF LIGHT

Bardens followup to "Seen One Earth" was released the very next year and showed that he was committed to producing quality new age music. When new age music became popular among some listeners in the early to mid 1980s, it seemed a bit of a refuge for fans of melodic and refined prog. Granted at its most adventurous the genre retained only sprinklings of what could be called progressive music, and almost nothing in the way of rock, but Bardens showed a valid path to get from there to here.

Surprisingly, this is a stronger album in terms of its actual content than its predecessor. Each track is meticulously composed and arranged, with much less in the way of ambient synth doodling. That said, you have to get past the programmed drums and keyboards that are made to sound like saxes and even animals, etc, not to mention 6 tracks with those smug sensitive baby boomer vocals.

If you can allow for the excesses of the day, you will find near Camel-like beauty and intricacy in songs like "Black Elk", "This Could be Paradise", "Afterthought", and the title cut, the latter being almost a half-sister of "Unevensong" from Camel's "Raindances". Even the poppier tracks like "Gold" and its Alan Parsons Project phrasings, and "Whispers in the Wind" are bolstered by incisive lead guitars by Neale Heywood and/or drums from friends like Mick Fleetwood.

No need to use warp speed to act, but if you happen to spot this one for a decent price, and you would like to hear what Mr Bardens was up to after Camel, by all means pick this one up.

Speed Of Light for me is one of Barden's poorest offerings. After the reasonably good Seen One Earth from a year previously there does not appear to be much progress made. The new age, jazzy funk sound more apparent making it great background music but never really getting to that place where the music demands more attention. Notwithstanding all his great qualities on keyboards and synths and his reasonable voice nothing really manages to stand out but again once a Camel fan, you will always find some bias to enjoy his works.His long time friend Mick Fleetwood adds drums to the album as well. Highlights would have to be the title track ( good energy), " Black Elk" and " Columbine". There are better releases from Bardens but if you are an ardent collector of Camel, no doubt you will have this already. Two and a half stars.

New-Age Pop?

As I pointed out in my review of his previous solo album Seen One Earth, Peter Bardens' musical career is very diverse. From the Psychedelic Blues Rock of his two pre-Camel solo albums to the brilliant Symphonic Prog with Camel and then the slick Pop of Heart To Heart and after that the Progressive Electronic oriented Seen One Earth. What would come next?

Well, even if there was only one year separating 1988's Speed Of Light from its predecessor, this is not Seen One Earth part II. What we have here is more similar to the Pop of Heart To Heart, but also strongly New-Age-like; New-Age Pop, maybe? While Seen One Earth was a darker and more atmospheric affair, Speed Of Light is more light-hearted and bright. Again unlike Seen One Earth, several of the tracks here have vocals. But the melodies are not memorable at all. While Seen One Earth reminded me of Vangelis' works, Speed Of Light reminds me of Tony Banks solo albums (his worst ones!).

The Prog quotient here is simply zero. Still, it is a well-produced album and actually not among Bardens' worst albums! It is not as embarrassingly bad like some of Bardens' other releases, just dull and uninspired. This is a poor release, at least judged as a Prog or Prog related one. Very few Prog fans will find this worth their while and more than a few will certainly cringe at some of these tunes.

The quality of the sound is impressive. Unfortunately the songwriting is not at the same level.

"Westward Ho!" is just a newage instrumental with very few or nothing of Camel. Not bad if considered as a chillout newage song, but it's not what one should expect from one of the two composers of the Camel's golden age.

"This Could Be Paradise" Is a kind of follow-up to Seen One Earth. Same kind of sounds, similar chords as "The Stargate" and a mood quite close to Breathless. It's listenable, but unnecessary as the previous song.

"Black Elk" could have been a better song with a real drummer instead of the electronic drums. Also the fairlight sound was starting to be outdated in 1988. I can imagine the chorus with Latimer's classical guitar replacing the fairlight, Andy Ward replacing a drone and Latimer's voice. It could have been a great song. With this arrangement it's just a quite poor late 80s electronic chillout.

"Aftertought" even if extremely melodic is a piano instrumental which reminds to better times. It can be considered another newage thing, but it's the first good moment of the album.

"Gold" is another electronic newage song but with a bit of guitar inside. It sounds like an attempt to be the commercial one, but it wasn't a hit single. Again it's not totally bad, but it sounds like another revisitation of "The Stargate".

"Speed Of Light", the title track, is one of the best songs of the album. Nothing exceptional also this time, but it's a good song not as cold as the previous ones, and very reminding of late 70s Camel. If the title track let's us hope in something good, "Whisper In The Wind" destroys all the hopes. Was he trying to sound like Blondie or Wang Chung? My suggestion is: skip this track.

"Heartland" is just another newage instrumental based on a trivial sequence of chords and a quite good piano.

"Columbine" closes the album. It's not a bad song even if there's not much prog inside. A sort of Alan Parson's love song. It looks like the one on which Bardens has put more effort in the songwriting. I have to admit that I personally like this song but honestly I can't recommend it to others.

There was no need for a "Gold" reprise in the last minute of the album.

If you consider it a newage album it's not totally bad, but if you are looking for Camel please forget it.

A collector's item which can't be of any interest for non-camel or non-bardens fans. Even if I like it for some strange reasons, I'm sorry but it's between 1 and 2 stars

Peter Bardens was and still remains one of the better musicians prog music ever had in the 70, he made history with Camel, but aswell had a solo career with hit and miss albums, at least for me.

His forth album from 1988 named Speed of light is one of those forgotten albums from his career. This time around he has a new age symphonic pop prog album in his sleeve, fans of Camel are gone crazy, in a bad way, but time are changing late 80s has nothing to do with mid to late 70s.

Kind cool release for my taste, 2-3 pieces are more then ok, like opening track Westward Ho, an enjoyble new age prog tune, nothing ground breaking but ok, another good song is the title track, all pieces has that plastic feel of the late 80s, electronic drums and pop new age atmosphere.

Overall to me is ok in places, and because I like him as musician I will round the vote to 3 stars, forgotten album and for good reason.

I bought this album back in 1996 and I didn't like it and there's little chance I'll like it now. While I did shortly buy Seen One Earth a little later, I didn't find it too bad. With Speed of Light, it was clear Peter Bardens was taking the success of "in Dreams" from the previous album and running off with it. That means letting Neil Lockwood sing on most of the songs, while he only sang on "In Dreams" on the previous album and the rest was largely instrumental. Seen One Earth sound exactly the kind of 1980s music I couldn't stand, this coming from someone born in 1972 and should love so much of the 1980s, like others my age, but I don't (synth pop and hair metal being some of the worst offenders). Cheesy digital synthesizers everywhere (including the Yamaha DX-7), cheesy drum machines (although Mick Fleetwood does appear on "Whisper in the Wind"), dated digital production. I remembered how from 1984 until sometime after 1992 it seemed like every recording was digital and it was rare to hear anything analog. Bardens fell in that trap hook, line and sinker. A lot of the music was trying to imitate the sound of Pink Floyd circa A Momentary Lapse of Reason, even Lockwood sang like David Gilmour. But it was done in this cheesy pop/New Age style. I always felt the worst offender was "This Could Be Paradise" (Bardens named his studio Paradise Studios, which this, and Seen One Earth were recorded, and I'm sure his solo albums after, although I was never in a rush to explore his solo career past this). Some cheesy pop/New Age hybrid, but those Brazilian a-go go bells never stop throughout the whole song. I'd rather hear it in actual Brazilian music or during Brazilian Carnival. "Westward Ho!" actually isn't all that bad, a rather nice instrumental piece, despite that '80s sound that makes me usually cringe, but that's the only decent song on the album. But what was up with that digital sax sound (likely from the DX-7) used throughout this album? I know he did use a little on Seen One Earth, but it's all over this album. I'm sure if he hired a real sax player, the sax player would likely go all Kenny G. all over us, and that's not what I'd want to hear (too many '80s recordings using sax gives me this nauseous Kenny G. vibe to it, even if it were a tenor sax, rather than a soprano sax that Kenny G. was known for). So, I guess a synth emulation of one is more tolerable than hiring a Kenny G. soundalike. "Whisper in the Wind" is another one of that pop-type numbers sounding like something perfect for a movie from this time period. I hardly hear any prog, where on Seen One Earth I do still hear a bit of prog. If you have to hear late '80s Pete Barden, go for Seen One Earth, it won't change your world, but it didn't leave me nauseous. The 80s sound and production are a bit more tolerable. Give Speed of a Light a pass.