MIRAGE

Mirage is the first album as part of a trilogy by Camel. Admittedly when I first heard this album I thought it was okay and had some cool parts, but never thought I'd give it any more attention aside from the occasional play every few months. Now I find myself listening to this excellent album at least once a week.

The beginning two tracks of this album are fairly straight forward prog songs. They're good tunes and open the album up properly. After these two songs, the first of the two longer songs of the album begins. This song opens up, also, fairly straight forward and is catchy and a nice melody and excellent vocals. The second and third parts of the song are the shining moments of the whole piece of work. The middle is an excellent guitar solo that will have you playing air guitar. The last part is almost ominous with the deep booming synthesizer that has a very driving melody. I've found myself humming this at work quite a bit. After this song we are entertained with a bit of an intermission of sorts with a very good instrumental track and is also fairly straight forward prog. This song is very reminiscent of what 70s rock in general sounded like with a driving riff and a fairly powerful solo. The album finishes things up with the longest track on the record. Another track that is reminiscent of what 70s prog was. The keyboards can be a bit obnoxious on this track. Overall it's a fun listen and the vocals helped to tie it all together.

While I may say that the tracks on this album are straight forward I must also concede that listening to this album from start to finish and hearing everything flow is something else. There is a great atmosphere with this album though the tracks do not flow seamlessly as with other prog albums. A great album that I highly recommend to novices of Camel.

Notable tracks: "Nimrodel/The- Procession/The White Rider" and "Lady Fantasy: Encounter/Smiles For You/Lady Fantasy"