what's so special about...

Think it's the very presence of such a sound in that decade that a lot of people react to, positively.  Beyond the sound, though, the compositional substance is not very alluring.  As you said, the constant and seemingly unrelated shifts end up making it difficult to sit through.  Cert1fied covered the rough gist of my views in his review, have similar thoughts on the album.

Atmosphere and the general tension in the music. It does have it roots in early seventies symph rock but then the only album its remotely like is Trespass from what I've heard. The band get a few extra kudos for being the first to emerge from the embryonic Scandinavian prog rock scene that included Anekdoten, Par Lindh and The Flower Kings. So its sort of an In The Court Of The Crimson King for the 90's. Its also respected a lot for helping reboot traditional symphonic prog rock. 

What's so special about The Snow Goose from Camel?

The Doctor wrote: Uh, it's totally freaking awesome. Duh!

OK, on to the next album then.

I think The Snow Goose is my favorite instrumental album of all time.  I like to listen to it each winter.

Billy Pilgrim wrote: Xonty wrote: Might as well do another one  What's so special about Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven? Eerie apocalyptic beautiful shoegazing violin music. I guess it's special because Godspeed is truly a unique band, not that their aren't a ton of other post rock bands, I just haven't found anything quite like GYBE, and Skinny Fists is their best work.

We can do both albums at once. We make the rules here! (well sometimes)

Snow Goose bores me while LYSF is just a journey of sound. Mesmerizing sorrow and beauty. 

Edited by Horizons - July 31 2014 at 20:50

I know no-one really bothers with these anymore, but...

It's pretty absurd that an album added a few months ago, with only 22 votes, should be so high. But there you go.

This thread is breaking up!

Since we're on The Snow Goose splinter at the mome, It's special to me in the form of it's live component, from A Live Record, which I prefer. I was working the night shift at a plastics factory, making Scope mouthwash bottles from 11:00pm to 8:00am. Open the sliding door, remove the injection molded blanks, put them in a box, close the door, stare into the distance for 56 seconds, repeat. For 4 hours. Take a 3:00 am lunch break. Repeat for 4 more hours.

That 3:00am lunch break was like heaven. I sat in my car and listened to that album every night for about a month. Luckily it triggers my memories of that hour of heaven and not the 8 hours of hell.

Then I went home and watched a Popeye cartoon and went to bed.