Moonmadness
| Moonmadness | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Camel studio album | ||||
|
Publication |
1976 |
|||
|
admission |
January and February 1976 |
|||
| Label (s) | Decca Records | |||
|
Title (number) |
7th |
|||
|
running time |
39:15 |
|||
| occupation |
|
|||
|
Rhett Davies and Camel |
||||
|
Studio (s) |
Basing Street Studios, London |
|||
|
||||
Moonmadness is the fourth studio album by British progressive rock band Camel . It was released on Decca Records in 1976 .
Creation and publication
After the surprising success of the instrumental The Snow Goose , Camel, now with Mel Collins as a session musician , wanted to use the creative impetus and soon make new studio recordings. But the record company began to express expectations of renewed commercial success and asked for vocal passages again. In addition, there was initially disagreement between Andrew Latimer and Peter Bardens in the songwriting and stylistic direction. Latimer wanted to distance himself more from British prog and find a more eccentric style, Bardens wanted to orient himself more towards the US mainstream. However, compromises could be made, with Doug Ferguson and Andy Ward hardly participating in the compositions. Bardens was inspired for the lyrics by Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha and Das Glasperlenspiel , Latimer by the works of JRR Tolkien and John Steinbeck .
Moonmadness was recorded in early 1976 within a few weeks in the London Basing Street Studios and released on LP that same year; Doug Ferguson left the band after the album. A CD version of Moonmadness was first released in 1983. In 2002 and 2009, remastered versions with bonus titles were released.
Track list
page 1
- Aristillus - 1:56
- Song Within a Song - 7:16
- Chord Change - 6:45
- Spirit of the Water - 2:04
Page 2
- Another Night - 6:58
- Air Born - 5:02
- Lunar Sea - 9:11
Bonus title 2002
- Another Night (Single Version) - 3:22
- Spirit of the Water (Demo) - 2:13
- Song Within a Song (Live April 14, 1976 at Hammersmith Odeon ) - 7:11
- Lunar Seas (Live April 14, 1976 at Hammersmith Odeon) - 9:51 am
- Preparation / Dunkirk (Live April 14, 1976 at Hammersmith Odeon) - 9:32
Bonus CD 2009
- Song Within a Song - 7:13
- Excerpts from The Snow Goose - 10:41
- Air Born - 4:58
- Chord Change - 6:49
- The White Rider - 8:51
- Preparation / Dunkirk - 9:22
- Another Night - 6:27
- Lady Fantasy - 16:05 (all pieces live on April 14, 1976 at Hammersmith Odeon)
style
After the experimental concept album The Snow Goose , Moonmadness became a quieter and more popular album, allegedly also under pressure from the record company. Melodic guitars and spherical keyboards are in the foreground. Similarities to Genesis are recognizable, but also echoes of the Canterbury sound . The atmosphere is mostly dreamy.
reception
Moonmadness is considered a classic of the band and progressive rock . The music magazine eclipsed ranked it 18th on its list of the 150 most important prog albums and for Günter Schote from Babyblauen Seiten it is “in its entirety the most coherent album of the band around Andy Latimer and (then) Peter Bardens. There are no weak songs and the dreamy, symphonic sound is right both front and back. "
Web links
- Moonmadness at Allmusic (English)
- Reviews of moonmadness on the baby blue pages
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Michael Fuchs-Gamböck: Andy Latimer over 40 years of "Moonmadness" , in: eclipsed No. 179, pp. 46–48.
- ^ Moonmadness at Discogs , accessed October 30, 2012.
- ↑ a b Daevid Jehnzen: Moonmadness at Allmusic (English), accessed on October 30, 2012.
- ↑ a b Baby Blue Prog Reviews: Camel: Moonmadness , Baby Blue Pages , accessed on October 30, 2012.
- ↑ a b eclipsed No. 144, p. 39.