CAMEL

It's a pity that Camel didn't follow the way they started with their debut album. "Slow yourself down" opens the album with a keyboard based introduction, some lyrics, and then percussions and drums give an exciting introduction to the second part of the song that's more jazzy. "Mystic queen" is an acoustic ballad, the first track where the influences of Bardens and Latimer are both present. "Six Ate" and "Separation" come back to the initial feelings and close the first side (remember that it was a vinyl). The second part is opened by their masterpiece "Nevel Let Go". It's the most complex song of this album, that's opened by an acoustic guitar and has a fantastic flute solo in the middle (in the live version it's replaced by keyboards and Mel Collins' sax). "Curiosity" is a typical Camel's song and finally "Arubaluba" is totally driven by Latimer's guitarwith one of the best guitar solos of the prog's history. This is not fast, or difficult, it's only that every single note is in its place.

The drums of Andy Ward are very impressive on all the tracks, also when there is no rhythm as in "Mystic Queen". 5 stars, absolutely.