Review Summary: A humanistic message sent into the heartless void.
This album really makes me sad, but not because it’s bad or poorly written. Former Camel mastermind Andrew Latimer did not break his 20+ years long radio silence to treat us to an inferior product. The quality is there, which is one of the reasons why I am sad. I think Camel is one of the most genuine and consistent bands of the whole seventies prog movement, and yet they are also one of the most overlooked. I’m not a stranger to progressive rock and am acquainted with all main prog giants of the past to a varying degree. And yet, the only Camel song I’ve heard until this spring was “Rain Dances.” Only a random flute concert that I’ve attended last winter spurred me to finally delve into the band’s discography which, in turn, led to a discovery of this recent solo Andrew Latimer album. Which is a shame, because maintained a remarkable level of quality throughout their career. They’ve had their creative slump in the eighties, just like the rest of them, but honestly, even those Camel albums that are considered bad contain a lot of truly breathtaking stuff. It’s just that the bad songs included on those albums are
really bad. Oh, and their “recovery” streak in the nineties – beginning of the 2000s is just as strong and inspired as their classics from the seventies!
Now, due to quite unusual nature of this release, I can’t really do a standard review and just describe what I’ve heard and what I liked or disliked about it. So, instead I’ll structure this review as a sort of Q&A session, answering the questions that I myself had upon discovering “War Songs.” Allons-y!
Is it really one single huge song?
No, it isn’t. There are fourteen songs in total, all listed on Andre Latimer Bandcamp page under the “War Songs” title. One of them, titled “In the Dark” is available separately as a single. However, all the songs are stitched together seamlessly into one single track that lasts for around 48 minutes. Oh, and the Bandcamp page only lists the songs’ titles, not their runtime, so you can’t really pinpoint accurately where one song ends, and another begins.
Why would Mr. Latimer do that?
He did not do any promotional interviews for “War Songs,” or, in fact, any promotion at all. He just dropped the album on BandCamp one day in October 2025 without even announcing it in advance. So, the best I can do is an educated guess. And my guess is that he wanted the listener to take a deep dive into the music and come back to the surface only after all 48 minutes are over, and not a second earlier. So, no pauses, no coffee breaks, just constant flow of music.
And the music concocted by Mr. Latimer this time is quite suitable for such a complete submersion. It moves at a solemn pace but envelops the listener quietly with its sweet and thorough melodies. It is not overcomplicated pseudo-prog bull*** (Andrew Latimer always had enough taste and restraint to avoid this particular trap), nor is it some boring and monotonous ambient. The album starts like a soundtrack to a movie from the sixties, akin to the old Django theme song by Louis Bacalov, and proceeds to blend psychedelics, symphonic prog, classic rock, and musique concrete. Surprisingly, the flute is not present, unless I missed flute parts being somewhere in the background, but apart from that you get pretty much everything else. There’s grand piano, electronics, the violins are especially prominent, and at some point, even a saxophone solo enters the fray, gloriously delivered by Pete Jones, Latimer’s erstwhile bandmate in Camel. The guitar is also there of course, although it sounds more Floydian than Camel-esque, sticking to that reserved “every note matters, as does silence between the notes” approach. That is something that I already observed on Camel last albums, and it’s not a bad thing at all.
As you can guess, all this is quite rich and multilayered, ideal for careful and thorough exploration. My favorite part is the section that starts at roughly 26 minutes mark and goes a little beyond 34:00 point. It is mostly a gorgeous interplay between the piano and the heart-aching violins with the guitars stepping in a couple of minutes later. No, seriously, the violins are
absolute here! I don’t know if this section contains one song or several, but for me it’s just one excellent symphonic prog track.
Is it a fully instrumental album?
No, it isn’t. There are three songs with vocals, all anti-war themed, as you can guess. The first one is the already mentioned “In the Dark” which is about some people (probably besieged soldiers or something) pleading for someone powerful to come to their aid. The second one is “We Are One” about two people refusing to say goodbye to each other and uniting for some unclear common goal. Finally, the last one is the closer “Going Home,” which deals with a desperate soldier asking “For how long it will last, and when can I finally go home?” Andrew does not sing himself this time, the vocals are delegated to Pete Jones who also wrote the lyrics. And therein, in my opinion, lies the main issue with the album. The lyrics penned for the album are as shallow as its musical content is rich. I could guess half the rhymes before they were sung, and, as you can probably see even from the summarized description above, the lyrics hardly say anything new or profound on the subject.
Still, the message is there. What makes me sad is that it will certainly fall on deaf ears. Pete Jones may not be the greatest lyricist, but his lyrics and his singing are earnest and sincere, and so is Andrew Latimer in his desire to speak out against war and suffering. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have bothered to release an album after such a long break. But who’s going to listen? “How many innocent lives must be lost?” – asks the lyrical hero of “Going Home.” “As many as we have to spend.” – answers Putin, Trump, and all the other bloodthirsty warmongers. “Why would you do such a terrible thing?” – “Just because we can.”
The whole album conjures an image of a nerdy, bespectacled guy running along a column of tanks and APCs heading out to war and screaming “Guys, stop it, war is terrible, why are you doing this?!” Unfortunately, kind words can’t stop a tank. Logical reasoning can’t stop a tank. A Molotov cocktail can stop a tank if thrown with sufficient skill and precision. Such is the way of life. But I am not angry, frustrated, or cynical about Mr. Latimer’s futile, but sincere and humane effort. I am just sad that nobody ever listens to kind nerdy guys. If anyone did, maybe the world would have been a better place.
