• Artist / Title: Camel: a Nod and a Wink
• Month Reviewed: August 2002
• Format: CD
• Buy:

Well, what a surprise! This is the bands 30th anniversary release and, as such, is a compendium of all their styles. It sounds like a ‘classic’ album and all the songs (7 of them) are uniformly excellent. Let down, however, by the bizarre cockney singing on ‘Fox Hill’! Apparently, an attempt at humour! The music is great, but the vocals sure do jar!

All is redeemed however, by the last song ‘For Today’. Uplifting and joyous, like a hybrid of ‘Stationery Traveler’ and ‘Ice’ via Pink Floyd, this is one superb piece of music. It would probably be a highlight of any future live shows. This is the one song that will have you returning to this album again and again.

Oh, did I mention the guitar playing??? Needless to say, all the band perform flawlessly, but Andy Latimer is once again the true star. His guitar playing is truly exemplary and is an object lesson to anyone else trying to play this most wonderful of instruments. Fantastic.