THE SINGLE FACTOR

Contractual obligations have rarely produced a good album. Take ELP's "Love Beach" as a classic example of how the demands of a record label punish the quality of the music and strain or completely rupture relationships within band memebers.

"The Single Factor" is another clear example of this sad reality. Although in this case, the matter of relationships was not a consequence of label pressure, the quality of the music truly was. This is a mediocre album which, as Camel's official website puts it, was 'written on demand' of a hit single. No long tracks, no album concept, no outstanding musicianship (with the exception of the guitar player)... in a few words: no prog rock. At all. Even pop reviewers must feel offended by the resulting "odd mix of songs" (again quoting from the official website).

Only a few tracks save the day: the instrumentals "Selva" and "Sasquatch". Most of the other songs are not even worth mentioning because of their mediocrity. An exception would be "Manic", which I feel is Andy Latimer's failed attempt to imitate Ozzy Osborne's voice (that's what I thought: what???), so that one merits the Worst Song title.

I give this album a rating of 2 stars. Honestly, this made me rethink if "Breathless" actually merited a 1 star rating instead of 2 stars. But no, there's still "Echoes" and "The Sleeper" in that album, two very good songs in a bad album. This one has two good songs in an mediocre album. So the rating remains.