RAIN DANCES

"Rain Dances" (together with "Breathless") has often been an underrated album in Camel's discography and, honestly, I can't understand why. I love everything this band did until Bardens left (being the later "Nude", an outstanding exception) and "Rain Dances" stands as one of the most original records they ever produced. The whole album shows a perfect balance between jazzy rhythms, pop structures and the beautiful melodies and harmonies we got used to from their first record. It's a record very rich in chord changes (obviously, since we're talking about Camel), and Mel Collins' playing (listen to his duel with Latimer in "One of these Days...") and Richard Sinclair's singing (what a voice!) make it even better. The nine songs included here are brilliant, but "First Light", "Elke", "Unevensong" and "Rain Dances" are, IMHO, four of the most beautiful songs they ever wrote. "Rain Dances" has a musical quality Camel never achieved again in the 80s, nor in the 90s. Their last releases seem to be highly praised by Camel fans (from "Dust and Dreams" to "A Nod...") but compared to what they did in the 70s, they bore me to death. I really think they should have changed the name of the band after Bardens left because what they did from then on is very repetitive and lacks the creativity that their old records had. It seems as if Latimer tries to repeat his solo in "Ice" in every song he wrote after, and something even more annoying: he inexplicably keeps trying to sound like David Gilmour (don't misunderstand me: I love Gilmour's playing.) Anyway, buy "Rain Dances" if you don't have it because it's a fantastic record, and you'll enjoy it for sure!