RAIN DANCES

Rain Dances is the quality turning point in Camel's career. There's still plenty to enjoy but at least half of it announce the poor years that would follow this release.

First Light continues where Moonmadness ended, with the introduction of fretless bass and saxophone it adds some slightly jazzy influences into the sound. Especially the spacey middle section is very charming.

If the opening track had made you hope for another excellent Camel album, Metrognome will probably shatter your hopes. Especially the sung part is very poor. With this level of sleepiness, a song really needs stronger melodies in order to work. The second half is instrumental and works better but it fades out before it gets really interesting.

Tell Me is mellower then what you thought total drowsy mellowness could ever be, but still it somehow works for me. Highways of the Sun however is shockingly horrible. Easily one of the annoying pop songs I've ever heard. Unevensong is better but again the vocals are disappointing. Most people will agree that singing was never Camel's main asset but still I enjoyed it on Mirage and Moodmadness. Here it sounds as insecure and lethargic as on the debut.

One of these Days and Skylines are songs where Camel embraces elements of fusion into their sound. I wouldn't say it's much of an improvement. If you want fusion, there's lots of better albums from that era and if you want Camel, you're better off without this gluey take on fusion in their sound.

Elke is a dreamy romantic piece for flute. Very moody and quite nice. Rain Dances closes the album and recapitulates the themes of the opening track. On a stronger album this would have been a very nice final touch. Here, it is ok but given how disjointed this album is, it doesn't accomplish the effect it tried to achieve.