(Review from progarchives.com)

During a six year hiatus, Latimer was fighting with lawyers to get some due royalties and to evacuate the problems with their former manager.
Changes in their record company (Decca) made it clear that Camel had to try and put an end to their contract. Both amically agreed to do so on April tenth, 1985. Latimer, who had already started a new project (which will become “Dust & Dreams”) was free to sign with another label. He got contacts with EG but after six months of useless talks Latimer put an end to the negotiations when he was asked why Peter Frampton had left the band.

Latimer decided to sell his London house and he settled to the US in 1988. At this time, he decided to re-write the second half of “Dust and Dreams”. He used the money from the sales of his house to build a small studio where “Dust and Dreams” was recorded and produced. After an improductive attempt with Virgin, Latimer used the money which was left to setup his own production firm : Camel Productions. With sales that took off, the company organized a world tour and got the license to release old Camel works to CD. Their first album reaching the bins at the same time as “Dust and Dreams” on a CD format.

The largely instrumental “Dust and Dreams” marked the revival of Camel. Latimer with Bass, Burgess, Scherpenzeel and seven guests recorded a musical evocation of John Steinbeck’s classic novel The Grapes of Wrath.

It starts with the prying wind theme “The Dust Bowl” that turns into a vocal manifesto of the family’s unrelenting hope “Go West”. Then we have a short symphonic masterpiece “Dusted Out” whose dramatic performance shows the drama of the Okies being kicked out of their homes. “Mother Road” brings another important message namely that you and the road you are traveling along are the one thing. The next instrumental piece is “Needles”, the city on the Joads’ way to the milk ‘n’ honey land, a quite nice transition to a beautiful and heartfelt song “Rose Of Sharon” which is even more sentimental in pitch than the book itself. The last vocal number is called “End Of The Line” which touches the problem of loneliness and helplessness among the trackers whose desperation increases steadily to the point of unutterable anger masterly expressed by the one of the final tracks “Hopeless Anger” in which Latimer`s guitar solo tears your heart apart. And at last the Joads are free to decide which way to go and what they left behind belongs to the past now, and the heavy rain drops bring relief and hope for a change.

“Dust and Dreams” is a great concept album from Camel, with nice melodies and good compositions. Celestial and emotional moments : we are brought back to the early Camel. What a nice comeback!

Line-up:
- Andrew Latimer / guitars, flute, vocals, keyboards
- Colin Bass / bass
- Ton Scherpenzeel / keyboards
- Don Harriss / keyboards
- Paul Burgess / drums
- Christopher Bock / drums
- Neil Panton / oboe
- Kim Venaas / timpani, harmonica
- John Burton / french horn
- David Paton / vocals
- Mae McKenna / vocals

Track List:
01. Dust Bowl (1:54)
02. Go West (3:42)
03. Dusted Out (1:35)
04. Mother Road (4:15)
05. Needles (2:34)
06. Rose of Sharon (4:48)
07. Milk n’ Honey (3:30)
08. End Of The Line (6:52)
09. Storm Clouds (2:06)
10. Cotton Camp (2:55)
11. Broken Banks (0:34)
12. Sheet Rain (2:14)
13. Whispers (0:52)
14. Little Rivers And Little Rose (1:56)
15. Hopeless Anger (4:57)
16. Whispers in the Rain (2:54)

Link in comments.