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Camel - Harbour Of Tears

Artist:	Camel
Title:	Harbour Of Tears
Label:	Camel Productions CP-006CD
Length(s):	62 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1996
Month of review:	06/1996

Line up

Andrew Latimer - guitars, flutes, keyboards, vocals, penny whistles
Colin Bass - bass (grin), vocals
Mickey Simmonds - keyboards
David Paton - bass, vocals
Mae McKenna - a capella vocal
John Xepoleas - drums
Neil Panton - oboe, sop sax, harmonium
And also John Burton, Barry Phillips, Karen Bentley and Anita Stoneham.
Music by Latimer, lyrics by Hoover

Tracks

1)	Irish Air	0.57
2)	Irish Air (instrumental Reprise)	1.57
3)	Harbour Of Tears	3.13
4)	Cobh	0.51
5)	Send Home The Slates	4.23
6)	Under The Moon	1.16
7)	Watching The Bobbins	7.14
8)	Generations	1.02
9)	Eyes Of Ireland	3.09
10)	Running From Paradise	5.21
11)	End Of The Day	2.29
12)	Coming Of Age	7.22
13)	The Hour Candle	23.00
	(A Song For My Father)

Summary

After a long silence we got Dust and Dreams and shortly after a number of live CDs including the well received, Never Let Go. Now there's a new studio album a concept album about Ireland and more specifically about the so called Harbour of Tears, from where people left for the USA to start over.

The music

Hmm, the new Camel. After so many years, the band (rather the man) has become no less than an institute. The album is like I Said a concept album and this usually means that the there's a selfsameness to it and indeed this holds also for this album. As a whole the album is very melodic and most of the melodies are good to very good. The album can also be compared to Stationary Traveller although that album was a little more pop-directed than this one. The mood of this album is rather down, but then again, the story is rather sad. There are some more sunny interludes, but musically they are not the best of tracks (Send Home the Slates, beginning of Eyes of Ireland, ending of Running from Paradise). The first track is an a capella Air and the second one is the instrumental version with Latimer's typical guitarplaying. The third track is a lament combining both Stationary Traveller and the sad Long Goodbyes of that same album into one track (okay, not as good as S.T.).

Most of the other tracks are filled with down sounding vocals and good solo guitar playing with some good piano/synths by Mickey Simmonds, but me telling you about it won't help a bit, because most of you already know how it sounds: just like previous albums, although maybe a little quieter and moodier. One of the better tracks on the album is Coming of Day which has a little bite and that is remarkable on this album.

As it is, The Hour Candle is unexpectedly bluesy and in the end, Irish Air is repeated.

The last part 16 and half minutes of this CD contains silence.

Conclusion

A pleasant album and well what you might expect of Camel these days. Awfully moody but the melodies are beautiful, but as a whole it might just be a little too moody and soft for me. A few rough edges I wouldn't mind a bit about.

Later note: I saw the album live and in that form it was really very good, much more compact and because of this it had a lot more impact.