CHAMELEON (BEST OF CAMEL)

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.