CAMEL

Camel's debut was recorded in February of 1973 and it's the first studio album under this name. However, they had also recorded an album in September 1971 backing songwriter and pianist Phillip Goodhand-Tait titled "I think I'll write a song" without Peter Bardens. Peter wasn't a member of the band at the time. At that time the band was named The Brew (had other names before like "Phantom Four" and "Strange Brew") and was a trio consisting of guitarist Andy Latimer, bassist Doug Fergunson and Andy Ward who joined the band in 1969 at the age of 14 after being suggested by his friend Fergunson who had performed with him before. In October 1971 Bardens joins the group. Bardens had already an impressive profile and had already been musically active for almost a decade.

Anyway, "Camel" is by 1973 a fact. Though it is a very good debut it wasn't successful and that lead them to change record company. If Camel hadn't released such amazing records after this one, I would consider this a masterpiece. Mostly instrumental, Camel show from the beginning of their career their compositional abilities. Powerful, memorable, honest and expressive melodies that captivate you (and will become even better in the albums to come) provide a very pleasant musical journey. Camel is one of the few bands that had found their sound from the very beginning. Being familiar to Camel it's very easy to understand it's them even if you haven't listened to this one. Their distinctive sound is all over the album.

Overall, it's an amazing album. I don't see why people say that it's not a good starting point. Moonmadness to say the truth was not only my introduction to Camel but to prog as well and I believe that if it was this one, it would have worked as well. The remastered cd has two bonus tracks. The single version of "Never Let Go" and a live recorded track, "Homage To The God Of Light". The first one doesn't really offer much from the other version but the second one is a great example of the powerful live performances of this band (better seen in the live album released in 1978) which is around 20 minutes.