CAMEL Studio Albums Poll 1973-1979

woah those guys actually do look like camels

i've almost bought a camel record so many times

are they related to sopwith camel or are they totally different things?

Totally different! This clip gives a good idea of what they sounded like :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTVnCyDoQlQ

Thes band is so abusively sensational, who I would not dare to describe it.

They were a lot better when they weren't singing to be honest. Also, they were probably the ugliest prog band ever, uglier even than Barclay James Harvest or The Enid.

I'm torn between voting for Snow Goose and Moonmadness. Never really liked the later stuff

"Moonmadness". Their best albums were "Mirage" through "Rain Dances", with "Nude" from 1981 and often forgotten contender.

They were not very good when they went in a pop-orientated direction

uglier even than Barclay James Harvest or The Enid

Whoooaa let's not go nuts

haha barclay james harvest is another band i've almost bought a zillion times....i finally got be bop deluxe but i didn't like them as much as i thought i would, but i don't think i got one of the "right albums" /zappa

They were not very good when they went in a pop-orientated direction

Not too bad IMO, because they never abandonded their prog sides completely. But the prog albums are better.

They went to close to AOR later on which is a horrible crime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aezncdri9Y

and the proper original version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aezncdri9Y

i mean this is the proper original version by the proper line up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEu1cele7BI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey_XxPZWAQE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k5xCkkQAEY

wheres bimble?

bimble listen to camel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eLqQKEzFaM

Bible first needs to finish investigating 70s Genesis. Then, Camel may be a good find afterwards.

Oh Bimble knows 70s Genesis very well I'm sure, he's obsessed with Peter Gabriel.

I would never say that Camel is better than Genesis, but I certainly like them better.

I've had Mirage and Moonmadness for years; recently picked up the rest of the above list, save for the self titled (is it great?).

At this moment, I'm going to vote Snow Goose.

I cant remember much about the self-titled, been years since I heard it.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

runaway winner!

Only on ILX am I ever in a majority of anything.

why did i not disocver this band before? i feel like i'm hearing a little bit of each of their proggy contemporaries, to nice effect... a little soft machine... a little crimson... a little roxy music and eno.... although it mostly reminds me is that sounds i identify with particular bands are really held in common by a whole subgenre.

"unevensong" off of "rain dances" is quite pretty.

what bands should i listen to next, folks?

the stop-start opening of "unevensong" dates it immediately, in a very genesis sort of way. but it moves into some very lyrical territory pretty quickly.

I love Snowgoose and Moon Madness, and I'm sure I have Mirage sitting in a pile waiting.

Love how the frontman makes all these orgasm faces as he plays guitar, he does that more than anyone else I've seen.

Would have voted for Mirage.

snow goose is so awesome. IIRC david bedford is arranging the orchestra on there? (He did arrangements for Kevin Ayers as well).

Anyone heard the new version of Snowgoose?

Are these new versions of classic albums a trend? Is Tangerine Dream the only other band doing it.

why did they do it? is it b/c they don't like the royalty rate on the old stuff a la def leppard?

the debut rules

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMZsRNjhVnk

how they get away with that logo, let alone the cover of mirage? promotional tie ins?

it was kinda like zeppelin and howlin' wolf iirc

i always used to joke about this bad; having been big into the other contemporaries for some reason everything about their records put me off, even though I never listened to them. i didn't even realize until just now that Mel Collins was in this bad for a good part of the 70's as well as a number of Caravan people.

start with the snow goose

Snow goose rules

The first two tracks on Rain Dances are amazing, but on the whole it's a slight step down from the previous records. Breathless is mostly terrible aside from 'Echoes' - after that, meh.

damn never heard this band before listened to The Snow Goose because of this thread, hot damn what a great album

afraid to hear this band with vocals now haha

Parts of Breathless sound like a hybrid of prog and yacht rock.

the snow goose is def one of my top 10 most listened to albums of 2016

it's so good

I prefer the live version from A Live Record to the studio version.

don't want to be a hater but camel always sounded to me like a more boring version of pink floyd. :(

at least this album doesn't really have much in common musically with pink floyd IMO

(i have not heard other camel jawns)

Mirage rocks in a way that Pink Floyd very rarely ever did.

this reminds me of a proggier, instrumental wishbone ash

#ProgHotTakes

I think they're kinda like Nektar too. Mirage is one of a handful of prog albums I sold, then missed so much I rebought.

have not really checked out Nektar, they weirdly played a show at Famous Dave's BBQ a couple years ago I sadly missed

i used to own journey to the centre of the eye. i remember i used to listen to countenance a lot

but i remember there were a lot of cheesy tracks on there

i definitely prefer snow goose

M@tt, I wanted to go to that Nektar show at Famous Dave's too, and should have; their guitarist/lead vocalist passed away in July of this year. Start with "Remember The Future" imo if you're diving in. Sorry to derail Camel thread with Nektar stuff!

I like The Snow Goose way more than any of the other Camel I've heard. It's really special. It's kind of a collaboration with composer/orchestrator David Bedford btw, who also did cool stuff with Kevin Ayers and a couple crazy prog albums of his own.

I wish I could say that I preferred The Snow Goose over Mirage, Moonmadness or even the first LP, but I don't.

are these guys the evolution of sopwith camel or are those 2 separate rock concerns?

Totally different.

LOL

are they related to sopwith camel or are they totally different things?

― the relatively famous Cambridge psychologist Sug-Ban Cohen (M@tt He1ges0n), Saturday, June 20, 2009 8:45 AM (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Totally different! This clip gives a good idea of what they sounded like:

― Matt #2, Saturday, June 20, 2009 8:55 AM (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51gVZI-JvBL.jpg

... my cousin used to have this album but I don't remember anything about it.

it's really good!

i've been looking for songs like 'starlight ride' on breathless - corny prog ballads that come off as sincere rather than theatrical/showy

A little disappointed by Mirage. Half of it really good and other half didn't grab me.

Was one of the other guys brothers with Latimer? In some pictures they look identical.

Matt #2 - saying they are the ugliest prog band? Harsh but also not true, one of the guys was pretty good looking.

Yeah sorry about that, the award actually goes to The Enid.

When I saw The Enid several years ago, there was a couple of young members that Godfrey was complimenting for their looks.

This is similar to the lineup I saw (I think the opera vocalist is missing)
https://www.last.fm/music/The+Enid/+images/76028985de7e4840bbd4cd9e800e9df1

Now it's just three young guys!
https://www.theenid.co.uk/bio

mirage got robbed. "freefall" is their best opening jam

anyone happen to have mp3s of Mirage and the first album they can shoot me today? at work and annoyed to find these aren't on any streaming services yet.

Listening to Breathless and looking at my CD player in surprise (anyone else ever do this?) at how much parts of it sound like 90s british rock.

Title track is so good

Such a great album. "Song Within A Song" is as good as prog gets

Re Breathless: I'm not opposed to the idea of yacht-prog per se (I even enjoyed the Richard Wright solo album), but something about the laid-back sound of this record was just flaccid to me.
Also, having liked Richard Sinclair's songs and singing on Caravan records, I was disappointed by his contributions to this. He was still a more solid singer than Latimer, though.

i like 'starlight ride' as far as sappy prog ballads go. nice sound

Finding the first half of the album stronger so far. Final track is really nice though.

Just realized I mixed up Breathless with Moonmadness in my head when I posted re: "Song Within a Song." Breathless is great too, super underrated with a smooth, uplifting vibe throughout. Yacht-prog is spot-on. "Echoes" still brings the heat though

Just played Breathless for the first time yesterday, I dig really like "Echoes", which is definitely yacht-prog but even that didn't prepare me for the disco-prog of "Summer Lightning". Which still won me over with the killer guitar solo.

Title track is still my favorite, proto-shoegazey

Maybe I need to give that one a closer listen, I was about ready to hit eject until "Echoes" kicked in.

Someone could write a thesis on whether Camel's "Down on the Farm" influenced Spinal Tap's "Sex Farm", as both are tributes to the erotic possibilities inherent in agricultural labour.

I mostly thought of Blur's "In The Country" but Camel's song is more about farm work than anything

4 really good tracks and the rest okay.

Whole lotta Camel here -

https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/camel-air-born-the-mca-decca-years-1973-1984/

no standalone Mirage reissue? that one still goes for a decent price and every time my local shop gets it in it apparently sells within a day

Don't mind a bit of Camel but I'm not entirely sure I need 32 discs of them

What's crazy is that it isn't much more expensive than Dylan's 4-disc Budokan thing. Box set pricing is really weird right now.

I cannot believe Snow Goose got 3x more votes than Moonmadness, which may actually be one of the greatest prog albums ever made

I've now heard all of these (other than I Can See Your House From Here and I'd still take Snow Goose other all the rest combined. I've never heard a band more hobbled by trying to include lyrics and singing, it makes the music really flaccid somehow.

no standalone Mirage reissue? that one still goes for a decent price and every time my local shop gets it in it apparently sells within a day

i picked up a reissue of this in London in 2022 so one exists

Four of their LPs were reissued in 2023, not including Mirage.

this is the one I picked up, 2019 pressing

https://www.discogs.com/release/14348620-Camel-Mirage

there is a yellow vinyl one that came out in 23

https://www.discogs.com/release/27333633-Camel-Mirage-

oh sweet will be on the lookout for that