MOONMADNESS

I missed early Camel due to being in Canada from 75 to 78, so when I got back, a friend lent me this album, the first of theirs I'd heard. And for 45 minutes, I sat back in complete amazement at the sheer beauty and virtuosity on display. It's spacy, melodic and perfectly progressive. If you like the more metal side of prog, perhaps it may not appeal, since it's fairly gentle but utterly relaxing. Even the vocals work, which isn't always true with Camel, and the musicianship is superb. Latimer is one of the truly great axe players and played a mean flute too, whilst Bardens (rest in peace) was a wonderful keyboards player. Ward and Ferguson melded like glue and the bass line to Lunar Sea is a masterpiece of effective minimalism. Every track is beautifully constructed, but Song Within a Song, Lunar Sea and Another Night are just my favourites. I will only award 10 albums 5 stars - this is definitely one of them and is my favourite Camel release and may indeed be my favourite album of all time. Utterly essential to any record collection.