(7/10)|
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| Artist | Camel |
| Title | Moonmadness |
| Type | Album |
| Released | 26.03.1976 |
| Genre | Prog |
| Style | Classic 70s progressive rock |
| My rating | (7/10) |
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Tracklist:
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Credits:
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Way back in 2018/2019 I downloaded Camel's whole discography and begun my journey with this band. Around this time I also purchased a CD of their most critically acclaimed album "Mirage", which I immidiately loved. Naturally, I went and bought this one too but I didn't really liked it.
For years I've avoided this record since I remember not liking it back then, but now I must say that this was a mistake! I relistened to it yesterday and I must say, I was intrigued by it. While I don't think it's a must-listen by any means, this is as fun as prog music can get. It's never too overwhelming for me, even tho it sometimes goes in some weird places with Bardens' endless and odd-time keyboard soloing...
"Aristilus", an album opener, was also used as a an opening song for most of the band's most recent shows. I guess it's "ok". I don't really enjoy unserious circus music stuff and this isn't an exception. But the next one "Song Within a Song" quickly changes mood for something more interesting. While literally being what it says in the title, the song features some exceptionally memorable musical ideas, that still dwell in my mind even though I've heard this song like 3 times ever. It's more fun to listen to than it should be.
With "Chord Change", the album enters it's run of songs inspired by band members' personality. This (or pretty similar) idea is often explored by classic prog bands for some reason (Fragile by Yes, Umagumma by Pink Floyd, etc). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but I think that here it fits very well and works in favour of the record. "Chord Change" being a musical reflection of Peter Bardens checks out really well looking at how complicated and proggy the song is. I didn't even remember Camel reaching such levels of complexity! About this song, I escpiecially like this slow, melodic solo that Latimer plays in the middle and weirdly exotic odd-timed parts that come out of nowhere.
"Spirit of the Water" is just a quick nothing-track that fades from my mind as soon as the song finishes. I want to like this song but I just cannot manage to even remember how it goes. And it has this annoying Camelcore poorly mixed vocals that don't help at all with the song's accessibility.
"Another Night" tho, I really like! For years it's been my favourite from this record. While it's not the case now, I still enjoy how uncharacteristicly dark and mysterious it feels. It has this nice groove and you can really tell the personality of Doug Ferguson by just hearing the track.
"Air Born" represents Andy Latimer and naturally it has all of the staples of his songwriting - soaring melodic guitar, beautiful woodwind sounds and ethereal atmosphere. Again, the vocal/instrumental licks here are exceptionally memorable for what they are.
Andy Ward's "Lunar Sea" that closes the record, is probably my current favourite from here. I like how crazy and rhytmic it is! It gets substantiallu proggy towards the middle, but as I said before, it's a cool kind of prog. It's not too excessive, it's not overly bombastic and it just fits the vibe. Very cool track that I'm sure I'll be coming back to more in the future.
This isn't an album for everybody. The instrumentation can get pretty wacky at times (looking at you, Peter...). The synths sound... interesting, the vocals are of course drenched in this weird chorus/shimmer effect that makes them undecipherable for the most part and some songs can be considered filler. But it's still a great album! It sounds very lunar, spacious and clean - apart from the issues with vocals the mix sounds remarkably well. Most of the songs are memorable, cute and simply fun to listen to! It truly is a Moonmadness...