MIRAGE

After the brilliant debut the band released their second album in 1974. Their debut album "Camel" wasn't very successful and thus Camel had to move from MCA Records to Decca Records. Although Mirage wasn't very successful in England too, it managed to create a fan-base abroad and especially on the U.S west coast.

Mirage is a fabulous album. The band seems to be perfectly connected and really getting serious. Better compositions, sound and performance from all members. Mirage, following what Camel had started in their debut, is a mostly instrumental album. Occasionally you might hear either guitarist Latimer or bassist Fergunson sing but even if the whole album was instrumental, I don't think it would become boring or repetitive because of the amazing ability of the band to create beautiful melodies. It's proggier and surely most experimental but most of all it's clear that Camel have defined their sound.

The solid rhythmic section of Doug Fergunson and Andy Ward prepares the ground for Andy Latimer's and Peter Bardens bombardment of melodies. Bardens has really developed his ideas from the debut while Latimer shows what a god he is with beautiful and expressive guitar solos. He also shows he is an excellent flute player (see Supertwister).

The original album consists of five songs (the remastered has 4 bonus tracks). All of them are amazing but one of the reasons Mirage is so famous is because of it's last and longest track, "Lady Fantasy". There is a video of Camel playing it live and Latimer crying while playing the guitar solo. I can really describe it with words so I suggest doing a search on youtube. The four bonus tracks are: "Supertwister" and two songs from the debut album "Mystic Queen" and "Arubaluba" recorded live at the Marquee Club in 1974 and the last is the original studio mix of "Lady Fantasy". The live tracks are really pleasant.

Overall, "Mirage" is an excellent addition to any prog music collection. The music although at times complex is not really demanding and can be very easily listened even by people not used to prog. "Mirage" could be a good place to start exploring Camel's world. Many would disagree on it being a masterpiece but I can't give less than 5 stars to it. Enjoy!