NUDE

Between two of their poorest albums it appeared Nude. The first Camel's concept album after Snow Goose, and the first "real" concept because Snow Goose is totally instrumental. The story of the soldier forgotten on a desert island after a battle is not invented. I think Latimer and Susan Hoover have taken one of the many true stories of this kind, added a bit of fantasy and realized the plot.

However many passages are instrumental. We have songs at the beginning (City Life, Drafted) and at the end (Lies and Please Come Home). Effectively the main character of the story can "speak" only at the beginning, before the battle, and at the end, when after being saved he can't come back to the "city life" and disappears, probably back to his desert island.

What is more interesting are the instrumental parts. While the songs are radio friendly and pop-oriented is in the instrumental parts like "Beached" and "Captured" that we can find Camel at their best.

Captured features a great Mel Collins' solo that Latimer was used to play on guitar live, but the guitar makes a great work on Beached when underlines the battle. Using the slide, instead of percussions to give the idea of a battle is a great idea.

This is not an album to be described track by track, anyway. It's a true concept album that has to be listened to from the beginning to the end and represents the last good act of Camel as a band that still has Andy Ward, before becoming just a Latimer's trademark.

A mention goes to Colin Bass and Jan Scheelhas, that after the partially deludent debut with Camel of I Can See Your House From Here, are here giving, specially the first, a touch of personality to the music.

A cathedral in the desert of the early 80s unfortunately followed by what is in my opinion the poorest Camel's album: The Single Factor.