THE SNOW GOOSE

The Snow Goose is a much more subdued and relaxing album from Camel in comparison to their previous effort, Mirage. I recently read the book The Snow Goose, and I enjoyed it immensely. I could also see where the style for the album came from. Not only is the music peaceful for the most part (except for Dunkirk), but it is also relatively simple. This also coincides with the book. Most of the songs are composed of fairly simple, but nice melodies, some of which might be repeated a bit too much.

Now, so far I have not said anything negative about this album, but there is really nothing mind blowing going on here either. This is just some nice, relaxing, pleasant music for the most part and that is about it. Some songs do get a little more upbeat such as Rhayander Goes to Town. I do prefer the first side of this album. It is more varied and interesting in my opinion. As for the second side, I don't care much for Preparation/Dunkirk. The music in Dunkirk is representing a battle, and it has a lot of guitar soloing. To me, there is really nothing very exciting or interesting about the soloing here. The album does end nicely with La Princess Perdue and the repeating of The Great Marsh theme.

In the end, this is a good effort from Camel, and that's about it. It's chill music with nice flute and guitar. A couple of other things. The flute playing isn't nearly as good as some other Camel songs, such as Supertwister and Air Borne. Also, the first time I heard Rhayander, I could have sworn I remembered hearing it in my dentist's waiting room when I was a kid! Let's file this one under Good, but non-essential.