Breathless
The last album with Peter Bardens, made by a band pulling in several directions at once.
Camel, 1978
- Released
- 22 September 1978
- Recorded
- 1978
- Studio
- The Manor, Chipping Norton Recording Studios and Threshold
- Label
- Decca/Gama
- Producer
- Camel and Mick Glossop
- Length
- 44:56
Latimer and Bardens wrote the album in Cornwall, but in the studio, Latimer said in 1981, they were stifling each other, and he would not let Bardens get his ideas out. The Progressive Aspect reported that Latimer called it perhaps the most difficult Camel album to make: the label wanted songs for radio, Ward wanted more complex music and Richard Sinclair leaned toward the blues. Sinclair sang lead on the title track, Down on the Farm and Summer Lightning, and Bardens sang Wing and a Prayer.
Bardens left before it came out, and the closing Rainbow's End is dedicated to him. Breathless reached 26 in Britain and 134 in the United States, and charted in Germany and Spain. AllMusic gave it four and a half stars, and the Shreveport Journal heard a mix of classical, jazz and rock. It was expanded and remastered in 2009 and remastered again for the Air Born box in 2023.
Track listing
- Breathless4:21
- Echoes7:21
- Wing and a Prayer4:46
- Down on the Farm4:25
- Starlight Ride3:26
- Summer Lightning6:10
- You Make Me Smile4:18
- The Sleeper7:08
- Rainbow's End3:01
Personnel
- Andrew Latimer guitar, Yamaha CS-50 and CS-80 synthesizers, vocals
- Peter Bardens keyboards, organ; vocal on Wing and a Prayer
- Richard Sinclair bass; lead vocals on Breathless, Down on the Farm and Summer Lightning
- Andy Ward drums, percussion
- Mel Collins flute, oboe, saxophones
- Dave Sinclair synthesizer on You Make Me Smile, piano on Rainbow's End
- Mick Glossop producer, engineer
More from Camel
Mirage (1974), The Snow Goose (1975), Moonmadness (1976), Nude (1981)
Sources
- Breathless (Camel album), Wikipedia
- Camel: Breathless, The Progressive Aspect (2020-03-05)
- Ten Years On, part two, Skylines (1981)
- Camel: Breathless, Discogs