AN OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS

Basically this could be considered the lost Camel album. Bass tells the tale from Conrad's book through a series of Celtic-tinged soft-rock songs, interspersed with some instrumentals and a couple of slight string pieces. The sounds are identical to what we find on late-period Camel albums, a mixture of lush keyboards and Andy Latimer's widely featured lead guitar, and and Bass's own vocals are eerily close to Latimer's, so much so that if you played this for any casual Camel fan, they'd probably declare flat out that it is Andy singing. If anything, Bass's voice is a little more expressive than Latimer's. Also like Camel, the album tells an inspirational tale, which is very close to 1981's Nude album about a castaway. All in all, if you are a big fan of Dust and Dreams, Rajaz and A Nod and a Wink, then you need to have this fine, mature rock album.