A LIVE RECORD

Wow, I have been listening to this album a whole lot lately. When I first purchased it in the early summer, I was pleased with what I had heard, but never really listened to the album that much. Now that I have brought it back out, I am coming to realize that this is one of the best live albums I have heard by any band.

Disc One is a mix of live tracks originally off of Camel's albums up until 1978, right before Breathless came out. Each song performed is a Camel classic. This disc really is a great sampling of the best Camel tracks. My main problem on the first disc is that I am not a big fan of Andy Latimer's vocals. However, Sinclair's vocals on the other songs are really great as usual. Best tracks here are "Song Within a Song," "Lady Fantasy," and "Lunar Sea."

Disc Two is where the real magic is at. I have yet to hear the original studio version of The Snow Goose, but can safely the performance on here is superb. Camel really kept me hooked here. I think that this album is worth the purchase for Disc Two alone. Best tracks here (although the whole thing needs to be listened to at once to get the full effect) are "Rhayader," Preparation," and "La Princesse Perdue." Again, this disc leaves me speechless!

This is a great purchase for anyone who is interested in getting into Camel. A lot of their best material is presented here, and although I would not usually recommend a live album to start out with, A Live Record is an exception. Even my one minor complaint cannot hold me back from awarding this album 5 stars. What a masterpiece of a live album!