STATIONARY TRAVELLER

Stationary Traveller is a second helping of Camel (their first four albums being the main course). The music is, however, completely and utterly different, mainly because of the loss of the other half of Camel's creative force (impersonated by keyboardist Peter Bardens), but also because of Andy Latimer's being the sole remaining member (an instrumentalist that particularly stands out being keyboardist Ton Scherpenzeel).

I could now write a bit about how great the songs are, and so on and on.

But what really matters is that people usually look down on this album, 'cause it does not resemble the Camel's "old stuff"'. Yes, cliche-ism is very strong in case of prog rock. most fans fail to notice the development in a band's line-up and inspirations. Anything new a band plays is usually juxtaposed to their previous achievements, judged in context.

As Camel's early work was truly outstanding, they are doomed to be labelled as "the 1970s band", so all their later work is doomed to be judged as "not so good as what they played in the 70s".

I write that this is an essential album, formulating an idea: this album is essential to understanding Camel, and understanding camel is essential to understanding progressive-ness in music. So much for the pathos.