A LIVE RECORD

I will let it be known that I have a far more frustrating time with the live album than most other music listeners; this Camel album is no exception. It's part of the typical ''play your most well-known songs in a live context while recording a few shows along the way and document an album highlighting the best shows'' kind of live album that are a dime a dozen. Camel does absolutely nothing to get me excited or thinking differently about live albums.

The big gaping problem is that the songs seem so devoid of life. I don't regard Camel as the most dynamic group on Planet Earth, but they can create energy and excitement in the studio. On this live album, Sinclair seems to be the only one putting some vitality into the performances; everyone else sounds so cold and deadpan that it ruins the experience. I'm half asleep throughout the whole album.

The rendition of THE SNOW GOOSE album is nice, but whenever I listen to it, I find it unnecessary. It goes more along with my personal opinion of live albums in general (will get to that soon enough), but I happen to own the studio version of THE SNOW GOOSE. I find the studio SNOW GOOSE the de facto version of this story, and I can't hear any difference between studio and live. Many of the other songs from their classic period suffer the same thing, but with terribly muffled vocals. ''Never Let Go'' has a more fusion take (the only one to jump out at me), but I'll always take priority towards the original studio track.

I don't enjoy live albums in general. I don't get a thrill out of finding ''the definitive version'' of a song simply because I usually go after studio albums, and the studio songs are usually the first times I hear the songs and I base my opinion off them. Hearing another live version is only going to tilt my head if the song has anything noticeably different. For the most part, A LIVE RECORD doesn't have that (''Never Let Go'' excluded). This album sounds poorly recorded, and I can't make out the vocals half the time. Camel did well in the studio; seek out those albums and come here only if you're a diehard fan.