CHAMELEON (BEST OF CAMEL)

Poor collection. Not even an option for those who haven't listened to camel and want to have an idea. This collection consists of eleven amazing songs but the fact is that there are three times as many songs that could be put instead of those. This is only for completionists. Not even fans need to have this collection. A poor release.... If you want to have an idea of what Camel sounds like try either one of the first four camel studio albums or try "Echoes", a wonderful collection of songs (put chronologically) that will give you a much clearer idea of Camel's sound.

Camel's first compilation effort. I guess it is a bit useless to produce such a compil. Camel delivered concept albums most of the time (at least during their most creative period), so trying to compile their work is quite difficult. On top of that, in 1981 a band like Camel was completely out of tune.

The opener "Echoes" is the best song from "Breathless". Two Rhayader pieces from the "Snow Goose" follow ("Goes to Town" being a very good one). Then, finally, a true Camel classic with "Song Within a Song" from "Moonmadness". Full of the harmony and beauty that Camel could developed in their early work.

"Remote Romance" is an unreleased track as far as I know (and should have definitely remained as such). It is as bad as ELO will produce in those days. Awful, really.

Three tracks from "Nude" of which the title track that lasts for twenty-two seconds (what is the use of such track on a compilation) ? "Drafted" and "Lies" are ones of the few good songs on this album which was averagely poor.

"Supertwister" is one of the few tracks from their early work (unfortunately it is not their greatest one). "Unevensong" is a good song from "Raindances". "Rainbow's End" closes this compil effort as it closes "Breathless" : poorly.

To summarize, it is a pretty strange compilation of Camel. Very few highlights from either their early work (up to "Moonmadness ") or their later one (no "Ice"). I am not sure there is a need for such effort (actually, I know there isn't). Do not buy this one. Stick to their best studio albums (their remastered editions sell for cheap, so...). Two stars.

This 1981 compilation would have been quite a treat for newcomers to the band in those days but for us who have all the Camel albums to this time it is truly not much of an album. It doesn't even feature classics such as Lady Fantasy and Lunar Sea, surely indispensable epics of the group.

Echoes is a nice treat as always and of course the mandatory Snow Goose supplement of Rhayader and Rhayader goes to town. I always liked Song within a song and Nude, though there are some interesting choices i would have left off such as Lies and Supertwister. It finishes with two of the more recent tracks up to the time of release, Uneven song and Rainbow's end.

The packaging is astoundingly dull and no frills with a plain white cover and the titles. So there is little to recommend this unless you are a newcomer to the band and even then there are far better comps available now such as the excellent Lunar Sea anthology 2 CD package. In light of all this I can barely recommend this and opt for a completists only one star rating.

Review Nº 190

Formed in 1972 in Surrey, Camel originally consisted of Andy Latimer, Andy Ward, Doug Fergusson and Peter Bardens.

By the end of 1973, the band released their eponymous debut album "Camel" and in 1974 they released their second "Mirage". In 1975, Camel released their breakthrough album, their third album "The Snow Goose", a great commercial success in England. The band's English audience declined in 1976 with their fourth album "Moonmadness". The album was more successful in America. Following the release of "Moonmadness", Fergusson left the group and was replaced by Richard Sinclair, ex-Caravan. At the same time, the band added the saxophonist Mel Collins. In 1977 they released their fifth album "Rain Dances". In 1978 they released their sixth album "Breathless". Then Bardens quit the group. Before recording their next seventh album "I Can See Your House From Here", in 1979, Camel replaced Bardens with two keyboardists Kit Watkins from Happy The Man and Jim Schelhaas from Caravan, and replaced Sinclair by Colin Bass. By the time they released "I Can See Your House From Here", rock music had been changed due to punk rock. That resulted in less press coverage for progressive rock and the inevitable decreased record sales of those groups. So, Camel suffered this shift too and "I Can See Your House From Here" received much less attention than any of the band's releases since their debut. Still, Latimer returned to writing conceptual albums with their next eighth release, "Nude", in 1981. On this compilation, we have only songs that belong to these eight studio albums, from Camel.

"Chameleon (Best Of Camel)" is a compilation of Camel and was released in 1981. It was only released on LP format. It has eleven tracks. The first track "Echoes" was released on "Breathless". "Echoes" is a typical Camel's song and represents one of the most progressive songs on that album. It's a song with great guitar work. It's the best track on that album. This is Camel at their best. The second track "Rhayader" was released on "The Snow Goose". "Rhayader" is an excellent track with a powerful melody combining flute, guitar and organ performed in classical influenced music with medium tempo. It has a memorable flute melody supported by an organ solo. The third track "Rhayader Goes To Town" was released on "The Snow Goose". "Rhayader Goes To Town" brings the music into faster tempo, with great combination of guitar and organ with energetic beats. It has an extended guitar solo too. The fourth track "Song Within A Song" was released on "Moonmadness". "Song Within A Song" is a calm, beautiful, and melancholic song which contrasts with the deepest voice of Ferguson. It's an excellent song with a nice and relaxing guitar and flute works. This is a typical Camel's song. The fifth track "Remote Romance" was released on "I Can See Your House From Here". "Remote Romance" is unqualified for a Camel's song. It's a pop electronic new wave song completely dislocated of the group's music and even of that album. It's an awful song. The sixth track "Nude" was released on "Nude". "Nude" is a very short track with only 0:23. It's a kind of a link between the previous and the next track. The seventh track "Drafted" was released on "Nude". "Drafted" is stuffed with great melodies and guitar themes of classic Camel's style, and proved beyond any doubt that the band was back at their best on that album. The eighth track "Lies" was released on "Nude". "Lies" is a strong vocal track that somewhat resembles Pink Floyd, and Mackay delivered an organ solo to prove that he could understand what the kind of keyboards that a progressive band should use in the 80's. The ninth track "Supertwister" was released on "Mirage". "Supertwister" is the nice and most peaceful song on that album. It's a great instrumental track partially dominated by a great flute work by Latimer. He proved on this track that he is a great flute player too. The tenth track "Unevensong" was released on "Rain Dances". "Unevensong" is a song with great musical variations. It's a good and brilliant song. This is a song with many breaks and tempo changes. It has also great Latimer's guitar solos. The eleventh and last track "Rainbow's End" was released on "Breathless". "Rainbow's End" is a short song, very calm and melancholic with beautiful chorus and good arrangements. It closes that album beautifully.

Conclusion: "Chameleon (Best Of Camel)" isn't a great compilation. It isn't well balanced and well representative of Camel's career. It covers all the 70's and the beginning of the 80's. So, apparently it covers the golden musical era of the group which comprises their first four studio albums. However, I think that it isn't totally true. In the first place, we have only one song from "Mirage", two songs from "The Snow Goose" and one song from "Moonmadness". By the other hand, their debut album "Camel" isn't represented. In the second place "Breathless" has two songs and "I Can See Your House From Here" has one song. These are, in my humble opinion, the two weakest albums from Camel with their ninth album "The Single Factor". Fortunately, we have one song from "Rain Dances", which is an excellent album and especially three songs from "Nude", which is, for me, their best studio album from the 80's. So, this isn't the best compilation that we can expect from this great band. Still, it has songs with enough quality to be rated with 3 stars.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Ever changing colours.

I am probably one of the very few Camel fans who actually enjoy this album.Obviously someone at Universal Music shares my enthusiasm because it finally got a CD release (in Japan) last year much to my pleasant surprise.Obviously as a single vinyl LP originally, there is no way it could ever manage to be fully representative so the compilers have simply taken a minimum of one track off all the Deram Lps.Fortunately with a couple of exceptions, this compilation has managed to cherry pick many of my favourite tracks. "Echoes" from Breathless is far and away the best and proggiest track on that album. "Rhayader /Rhayader Goes to Town" from the Snowgoose album is arguably the strongest track from that album.I was never as enthusiastic about Moon Madness as most fans seem to be but I always liked "Song Within a Song" from that album and here it is- track 4.I actually really liked the Raindances album and my favourite from that album "Unevensong" is here as well.I always found Nude a bit difficult to digest like a lot of concept albums but "Nude/Drafted" and "Lies" from that album were pretty strong and make a welcome appearance too. I Can See My House From Here saw the group moving into dangerously commercial waters and unfortunately this compilation includes "Remote Romance" from that album which is the most irritating song they ever recorded. There are actually quite a few decent tracks from that album which the compiler could have chosen but there you go. "Rainbow's End from Breathless round off the compilation and is rather a lightweight syruppy ballad and there are any number of tracks I would have preferred - maybe "Highways of the Sun"

Overall though, as a listening experience I think this album works extremely well. There are much more comprehensive collections like the 2CD Echoes but I actually find those exhaustive compliations a bit tough to get through. Ironically unlike single LP samplers which make no attempt to be comprehensive but work as an album when listening to these blockbuster 2CD collections I spend most of the time irritated by the tracks they omit.

So again- I realise I am in the minority but I still recommend Chameleon as an excellent sampler and a very enjoyable album in its own right

4 stars