A Nod and a Wink is Camel’s final studio album to date — a warm, reflective, deeply English record that looks back over the band’s long history and pays tribute to a departed friend. Released in 2002 to mark thirty years of Camel, it’s a gentle, nostalgic set led as ever by guitarist Andrew Latimer, and for many a fitting, moving close to one of progressive rock’s most beloved catalogues.

The short version

A Nod and a Wink (2002) is the fourteenth and, so far, final studio album by Camel, released on the band’s own Camel Productions label. Recorded by the core line-up of Andrew Latimer, bassist Colin Bass, keyboardist Guy LeBlanc and drummer Denis Clement, it celebrates the band’s thirtieth anniversary and is dedicated to founding keyboardist Peter Bardens, who died in 2002. Nostalgic and pastoral, it returns to the classic English sound of Camel’s 1970s heyday.

Thirty years of Camel

By 2002, Camel had been making music for three decades, guided throughout by Andrew Latimer, the guitarist, flautist and singer who is the band’s one constant. The album arrived at a poignant moment: Peter Bardens, the keyboardist who had co-founded Camel and shaped its first six albums, died in early 2002, shortly before recording began. A Nod and a Wink is dedicated to his memory, and the sense of looking back — over a life, a career and a friendship — runs through the whole record. Latimer’s wife, Susan Hoover, provided the reflective lyrics, and the album’s title and artwork nod repeatedly to Camel’s own past.

The sound

After the world-music flavours of some earlier albums, A Nod and a Wink stays close to home: this is warm, melodic, distinctly English progressive rock, rich in flute, acoustic textures and Latimer’s singing, David Gilmour-like guitar. The mood is gentle and autumnal, evoking childhood, memory and the English countryside through the turning of the seasons. It’s a mellow record rather than a flashy one — long, unhurried pieces built on atmosphere and melody — and it consciously recalls the pastoral beauty of Camel’s mid-1970s classics.

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The songs

The album opens with its eleven-minute title track, which drifts in on birdsong and flute before building into one of Camel’s finest pieces in decades, recalling their classic 1970s style. ‘Simple Pleasures’ is a melancholy, Moody Blues-like ballad graced by a soulful Latimer solo, while ‘A Boy’s Life’ and the Genesis-tinged ‘Fox Hill’ — the latter sung by Colin Bass — look back to youth and idealism. ‘The Miller’s Tale’ and the festive ‘Squigely Fair’ add folk and rural colour, before the album closes with ‘For Today,’ a hymnal, deeply moving tribute to the victims of the September 11th attacks.

Reception and legacy

A Nod and a Wink was warmly received, widely seen as a return to the classic Camel sound and one of the strongest of the band’s later albums, its title track and closing ‘For Today’ singled out for particular praise. It proved to be Camel’s last studio album: Andrew Latimer’s health problems led to a long hiatus, though the band later returned to the stage to great acclaim. Whether or not more music follows, A Nod and a Wink stands as a graceful, heartfelt capstone to a remarkable body of work — and, in its dedication to Peter Bardens, a fond farewell to an old friend.

The verdict

A Nod and a Wink is a lovely, emotional album that rewards patient listening — not the place to begin with Camel, but a deeply satisfying one for anyone who has followed them, or who loves gentle, melodic, English progressive rock. If you cherish Latimer’s guitar and the pastoral side of the band, it’s essential. Come for the majestic title track, the tender ‘A Boy’s Life’ and the moving ‘For Today,’ and enjoy a warm, dignified farewell — at least for now — from one of British prog’s most treasured bands.

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