Echoes

For a truly exhaustive chronicle of Camel's career up until the mid-'80s, try the 59 track Rainbow's Endcollection, but the considerably more concise anthology Echoes does an excellent job of hitting the highlights of the British prog heroes' history. Like the aforementioned box set, Echoes includes key cuts from every one Camel's first 10 albums, charting the evolution of their structurally sophisticated, highly melodic sound, as defined by bandleader Andy Latimer's graceful guitar lines and Pete Bardens's colorful keyboard work. We follow the band up to the creation of its all-instrumental masterpiece, The Snow Goose and then into the relatively more commercial sound of their late-'70s and '80s albums, but while Rainbow's End stops there, Echoes picks up the story after Camel's long layoff, by ending the collection with cuts from the band's 1991 reunion album, Dust and Dreams. If you want to get a feel for one of the most influential prog bands to emerge from England in the '70s without delving into box set territory, Echoes is ideal.