The Snow Goose is an 1975 instrumental concept album by British not-as-famous-as-they-deserve prog band Camel. The Snow Goose is an album inspired by Paul Gallico's romantic novel of the same name, and although I haven't read it, I understand that the music follows the narrative fairly closely. The Snow Goose has been described as Camel's masterpiece and although some of their tracks on other albums are, to me, more inventive, this record definitely has a cohesive whole that is not to be found elsewhere.
The music is dense and driven, very romantic and lyrical in quality although you can still hear the frequent rhythmic breaks or shifts that abound in Camel's music and make them so enticing. Unlike Mirage which had more or a hard edge or the darker Moonmadness, The Snow Goose is generally uplifiting, alternating melancholy passages with soaring melodies. The flute and oboe (at least I think it's an oboe) give it a medieval, naturalistic quality that is reminiscent of Mike Oldfield's Ommadawn while the more driven, guitar based melodies are in the same vein as Meddle era Pink Floyd, sans psychedelic madness.
The Snow Goose is a great listen and a great piece of music, in the firm tradition of progressive, and while the general positiveness of it sounds a little naïve by today's standards, it's still well worth a purchase. Some of the tracks stand out (Rhayader goes to town, The Snow Goose, Dunkirk, etc.) but the strength of this record is its unity. In other words, don't listen to it in bits. The bonus tracks are various single edits and two live recordings, including an excellent The Snow Goose>Freefall.
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