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Rating: My first DeReview, so... don't shoot the DeReviewer, he's doing the best he can...
It's 1981 when Andrew Latimer & Co. re-present themselves to the public with this album, two years after the not-so-extraordinary "I Can See Your House From Here" and a year before the even less compelling "Single Factor". It's undeniable that certain sounds marked '80s make their cumbersome presence felt in this concept album, which, however, in my opinion, has a charm and completeness on par with their best works.
It tells the story (half true and half fictional) of a Japanese soldier (Hiroo Onoda, "domesticated" in Nude), found many years after the end of World War II on a remote island in the Pacific, fighting a war that for him had never ended, but which paradoxically had never really begun either.
The initial impact with the story is frankly not the best: City Life-Nude feels a bit plastic and like easy pop, but perhaps this vague feeling of discomfort is partially intended, and the text highlights the character's sense of alienation towards a frantic city life, in which he doesn't seem to feel at ease. It is immediately contrasted by the symphonic opening (which then spreads into evocative guitar solos) of Drafted, in which the protagonist of the story is introduced with his somewhat naive reaction to war propaganda: it's 1942, and for Nude, like many other young people, the homeland is making an offer he (as Don Vito Corleone would say) cannot refuse: an offer to enlist in the army.
Dark bass lines (Colin Bass), martial rhythms, and dramatic guitar themes, highlighted by echoes traversing the stereo channels (Docks), depict the beginning of our protagonist's war. However, the company is surprised by a storm that forces it to hastily take land (Beached), and by a strange fate, Nude is unknowingly left alone on a remote Pacific island. The frenzy of the previous tracks is replaced by an atmosphere of great peace and harmony. The flute of Mel Collins (or Latimer? the booklet included with the CD doesn't help resolve the dilemma) spreads through evocative exotic settings (Landscapes) and subdued tribal percussions (Changing Places). Nude spends nearly thirty years in this sort of earthly paradise, but distant echoes of a martial march (Pomp & Circumstance) warn us that Nude's story on this island is about to end.
Like the calls of Ulysses' sirens, the invitations to return (Please Come Home) sound false and deceitful, but once again Nude doesn't have much choice and is about to say goodbye to what has been his home for thirty years. The keyboards of Duncan Mackay and the usual Latimer's guitar play one last time, calm and serene (Reflections), soon replaced by the frantic and insistent rhythms of the (so-called) civilized world (Captured). A band march (The Homecoming) welcomes the revived hero, but oblivion quickly takes the place of enthusiasm, and Nude is "lovingly welcomed" into a mental health institution.
Nude screams out all his disillusionment and anger for the lies (Lies) that have been fed to him once again, disillusionment and anger voiced by Latimer's guitar in one of his most famous solos. On the occasion of his fiftieth birthday, the institute's staff prepare a birthday party (Birthday Cake), but Nude is far away: he was last seen in the summer of 1972 talking to some sailors at a nearby port. The percussion by Andy Ward (here in his last performance with Camel) fades in the distance (Nude's Return), and along with them, my (De)review.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 City Life (04:41)
Wake-up,
Wake-up, wake-up
Signs tell the time
you're wasting.
Wake up
wake-up, wake-up
Life you will find
is changing.
O the city life,
endless confusion.
Hanging on too tight,
to this illusion...
I'm not what I appear to be.
I couldn't take the honesty,
It seemed to be...
too easy for reality.
O the city life,
what have I come to?
Faces in the night,
friendly to fool you.
I always try to justify,
the way I am and wonder why
I couldn't be...
the same to you I am to me.
03 Drafted (04:18)
Nude's thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. The postman muttered something about wishing he could go too and handed over a yellow envelope.
It was a command long overdue that called for healthy, young men.
In reply to your request,
please find...
I hereby protest.
To the ways and means you use
you know...
I cannot refuse.
So I'll take this vow
of Loyalty.
Fight for the right,
You have said,
To be free.
When this time has run its course,
I must...
Live without remorse.
For the deeds I'm bound to do,
I know...
it's all the same to you.
But I won't forget
the memory...
Taking a life,
for a life...
to be free.
09 Please Come Home (01:12)
The 29th monsoon had finally dried when a distant buzzing sent Nude scrambling for cover. A tiny plane dipped and swerved, filled the air with swirling white and disappeared.
He cautiously approached one of the scattered pices of paper:
We've been writing letters each day
hoping that you'll come home.
And we're wondering if you're okay.
As you're not on the phone.
Face the facts now
Take a chance.
Come on back now.
Fast.
Please come home,
Please come home.
Everyone cares for you.
Please come home,
Please come home.
Everyone cares for you,
Everyone.
We've been writing letters each day.
Hoping,
that you'll...
come home.
16 Friendship (01:39)
While the Snow Goose gradually gains strength, tended to by Rhayader and visited by Fritha, a strong bond of affection grows between the three of them.
20 Preparation (04:11)
Rhayader gets ready to sail, together with the small Armada of other boats to help in the desperate rescue operation at Dunkirk.
21 Dunkirk (05:27)
As Rhayader departs, leaving Fritha behind he cannot prevent the Snow Goose following him out across the channel and left into the heart of battle.
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