Customer Reviews
Exquisite Camel! - By: Stargazer, 17 Jul 2008 
This album seems to be the one that get the vote as Camel's finest, & on listening to it, it's not hard to see why. Chock full of exquisite & wonderful melodies, this is both Camel & the genre of soft prog rock at their finest, & showcases beautifully what this genre of music is all about. Simply divine!! I'd heard Lunar Sea a few times on internet radio & that caught my attention; that is definitely a highlight of the album, being a jazz-infused prog rock instrumental, but I'd have to say that Air Born is my personal favourite track on Moonmadness. It defies superlatives & only listening to this track for yourself will demonstrate why this whole album deserves your undivided attention. Go ahead & get this & hear a fine example of the great music that was being made backin the 70s. Certainly music never to be forgotten!
Classic Prog Rock - By: Mr. W. L. Philpot, 17 Sep 2007 It's an absolute crime that Camel's output is often regarded as second rate when compared with other prog outfits. This album is the equal if not better than Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd, ELP.......
Lunar magic - By: D. J. H. Thorn, 30 Jun 2007 'The Snow Goose' may have been the album that broke Camel for most of their fans, but I much prefer this collection of largely exhilarating instrumental excursions. Of course, there are songs with eloquent lyrics & tidy melodies, but vocals are not the strong point of this album. The brief, romping 'Aristillus' jolts you into paying attention, before the beguiling 'Song Within A Song'. I first heard this & 'Lunar Sea' on 'A Live Record', which is another great album. 'Another Night' is wonderfully strident & 'Lunar Sea', one of my favourite Camel tracks, full of atmospherics, great rhythms & guitar runs, closes the album proper. The remaining three tracks are all good value, relatively mild, but this is one of those albums that fizzes with enthusiasm & leaves you wanting more.
GO CRAZY!!! - By: Stotty, 10 Mar 2007 
Moonmadness showed Camel returning to the kind of sound that made albums like 'Mirage' & the self titled debut great. After the the commercially successful experiment that was 'The Snow Goose', Moonmadness sees the band returning to some good old fashioned prog.
'Aristillus' is a great, albeit short instrumental intro. 'Song Within a Song', 'Chord Change' & 'Air Born' are well structured, brilliantly played complex works. 'Spirit Of The Water' is slightly forgettable & is probably the only weak point on this collection. 'Another Night' gives an indicator of the kind of slightly more commercial efforts that would follow on the next few albums, & album closer, 'Lunar Sea' is an awesome instrumental workout, almost as good as 'Arubaluba' from the debut.
In short then, Moonmadness is a great return to form, even if it doesn't quite reach the heights of the first two albums. Bass player Doug Ferguson would leave after the subsequent tour, & this would start the rot of constant line up changes that would affect the overall quality of the bands future output, & ultimately, their popularity.
A superlative album - Camel's best! - By: alextorres, 23 Feb 2007 "Moonmadness" is a wonderful piece of music. It's not a concept album but manages to do what all the very best albums achieve - creates a soundscape into which all of the songs fit easily, such that the synergy of the whole album is very much greater than you might think from listening to an individual song out of context.
This was Camel's fourth album & featured the original line-up of Andy Latimer, Pete Bardens, Doug Ferguson & Andy Ward: the musicianship is excellent, Doug's bass playing & Andy's drumming providing musicality of their own to add to Andy & Pete's wizardry.
The music is generally at a slow tempo, Pete Bardens's keyboards & piano not only providing a symphonic backdrop but sharing the melodic work with Andy's guitar & flute. The flute passages are beautiful, as they were on the previous album "Snow Goose", & more melodic than you might hearin Jethro Tull's music. There are lengthy instrumental passages, never dull, including two complete instrumental numbers. The vocals, sparse as they are, are deliveredin laconic fashion & given an ethereal mixin the production, blendingin perfectly with the wash of the music.
It really is a gorgeous album - Latimer & Bardens's "Song Within a Song" is one of my all time favourite top ten tracks & the others are not far behind: "Chord Change", "Air Born" & "Another Night" being the others that I would highlight from the album's seven tracks.
For those of you who are lovers of English humour, you will also enjoy the band's wonderful play on words with the final closing number, the instrumental "Lunar Sea". "Lunar Sea" - "Moonmadness" - !!
The 2002 re-issue includes live recordings of "Song Within a Song", "Lunar Sea" & "Preparation/Dunkirk" (from "Snow Goose"), the single version of "Another Night" & the demo version of "Spirit on the Water. Frankly, you would be better off listening to these at a different time to the original 7 tracks that make up the album - these bonus tracks do not have the same character or feel that makes "Moonmadness" the brilliant album that it is & listening to them after the original album will diminish the feeling of utter pleasure that you will have experienced!
