Camel Dust And Dreams

A must-have, regarding the recent events which have characterized the life of Andie Latimer, whose title- "The Opening Farewell"- is emblematic: a collection of famous immortal tracks like the sensible "Ice" or the intelligent "Spirit of Water" (regardless the fantastic "Lunar Sea" from "Moodmadness" and "Mother Road" from "Dust and Dreams") and a few less famous tunes, such as "Slow Yourself Down", "Another Night" or "For today"…

This is the first CAMEL album. Surprisingly progressive, a bit like early FOCUS, although maybe less hard rock (the electric guitar is slightly more shy). The keyboards are mostly floating and rythmic organ full of effects, and some mellotron, piano and VCS3 parts. The bass is quite present and rather complex. There are tons of sophisticated drums. The lead vocals are very good, as always. You listen the early CAMEL mainly because of the outstanding keyboards. ~ greenback

Fantastic comeback by Latimer & Company, witnessing his splendid "Harbour of Tears Tour". The title track is unforgettable, as well as those ones from the concept album based upon the novel by J. Steimback'd "The Grapes of Wrath", that is "Dust and Dreams", the definitive imprinting of CAMEL in the early nineties…

Camel's Coming of Age DVD begins with a fly on the wall style mini documentary showing the band in rare form rehearsing for a show. They discuss various chord structures and movements to get that distinct Camel sound and they play full pieces effortlessly. It is a wonderful start to this fabulous DVD. The sound check follows which is basically the band preparing prior to a show on a stage with an empty auditorium…

Although Stationary Traveller is a concept album, it musically falls into line with its predecessor The Single Factor, which found Camel trying to refashion themselves as the Alan Parsons Project. Where The Single Factor suffered from Camel's attempts to write pop hooks, Stationary Traveller finds the band breaking down the barriers, opening up their relatively concise songs with long, atmospheric instrumental passages…

Although not an honest representation of the band's character, this is undoubtedly their most popular work. The one-time addition of American Kit Watkins produces some fine keyboard lead work. Rupert Hine's resourceful production and appearances by Phil Collins and Mel Collins round out this strong import release. "Survival" and "Who We Are" feature some fine orchestrations, and guitarist Latimer delivers some exceptional lead work on the album's closer, "Ice." ~ Matthew Plichta

A new, larger version of Camel debuted on Nude, a concept album about a Japanese soldier stranded on a deserted island during World War II and staying there, oblivious to the outside world, for 29 years. More ambitious than the preceding I Can See Your House from Here, Nude is in many ways just as impressive…

Camel's The Single Factor is my least favorite Camel album up to 1982 and many would argue that this is also their weakest. Fresh off their release of the concept album Nude, Camel delivers a pop rock smorgasbord. There really are some woeful tracks here, but on the flip side, some pretty good ones as well. Latimer writes or co-writes everything here (not all that surprising) and The Single Factor did achieve mild success at the time of its release in the UK. As always, there is a decent amount of guitar work spread throughout the album to keep Latimer fans happy…