The astonishing thing about Brass Camel (2026) is that it is not just another iteration of what the band has previously been. Instead, there is a remarkable transposition into a higher sphere of musical achievement.

It’s as if the band only partially showed themselves on earlier releases. Brass (2022) had a fascinating blend of funk and prog, which soared especially on “Last Flight of the Vulcan.”

Camel (2025) continued crafting the longstanding trademark funk sound of Brass Camel, but with even longer prog forays on the jaw dropping “Zealot” and “Another Day.”

But it’s on Brass Camel (2026) that the band Brass Camel has now realized a full expression of what they were painstakingly working towards on earlier releases.

This album is such a definitively upper echelon achievement that, despite the precedents of the earlier releases, it still feels unprecedented every time I listen to it.

From song to song, note to note, it has the magical actualization of pure perfection. I keep asking myself: What would one wish were different about this album, in any way? The answer is: Absolutely nothing. I am unable to find a single thing to quibble with or to criticize. Because the album is, quite simply, perfect.

Let me explain. Or rather, illustrate with an example. I won’t draw upon comparisons to some of the most famous classic rock albums, even though I believe this album in itself constitutes irrefutable proof that Brass Camel has given us a release that is one for the ages.

This album, in its pure perfection, reminds me of the experience of Big Star’s #1 Record. That’s an album that never became widely known by a mass audience, but that will forever be legendary for anyone with taste who ever hears it. In the same way, Brass Camel is just like that. Even if it never becomes an album that conquers the world by selling tens of millions, it is still an album that is so beautiful and perfect that I pronounce it legendary. From this moment on, it is destined to be a number one record in the hearts of those who are lucky enough to hear it.

Brass Camel is a release that is so entirely unexpected for me, despite my familiarity with the band for many years now. Its shocking perfection feels to me like hearing Big Star for the first time. How can a record be so amazing? We cannot say how such magic happens. No algorithm will ever be able to bottle it. But when the conditions are right, and the musicians are committed to every note as if their lives depend on it, such thrilling albums can arise and surprise us all.

The analogy to Big Star is not perfect. This is not Brass Camel’s first album, as was #1 Record. Nor is the music comparable in genre. But I feel like the analogy fits in more ways than it does not.

The band comes up with a sound that is distinctively its own. They have a trademark sound, in spite of their obvious debts to others for inspiration and example.

They craft a whole idiosyncratic genre that seems to be fully inhabited only by their own inimitable selves. The band has a musical ethos that is what gives the whole album its pristine perfection. The joy of the music itself for its own sake resounds in every note. So, you see that my analogy relies upon a feeling: the awareness of something special, something legendary, being birthed.

“You’ve Got Time” gives me sensations of early Yes along an alternate timeline, as its chirpy staccato vocal rhythms invite me to imagine Jon Anderson and his confreres singing along.

If there were ever a sonic actualization of what going into hyperspace sounds like, it’s how drummer Wyatt Gilson fires up the faster-than-light hyperdrive at a minute and a half into “What Are You Going To Do,” and takes the whole band flying off on the highest velocity thrill ride possible.

“Why Bother” makes it clear that you are listening to a legendary album. It takes inspiration not just from Queen but also from the Beatles, I would say. It would fit comfortably on side two of Abbey Road. It’s a song so perfect that it takes your breath away every time you listen to it. The song itself is the answer to its titular question. Why bother? Because a song like this makes life worthwhile. And the impossible work that it takes to make the impossibly perfect happen is worth all the bother in the world when this is the result.

“Can’t Say We Didn’t Try” has astonishing musical acrobatics that are a perfect match for its musical subject matter: a daring attempt to make a special plane fly again.

“Ice Cold” finishes off the first half of the album (the first five tracks) with the greatest realization yet of Brass Camel’s trademark hard funk sound. One could say that the whole first half does the same, because despite the many prog flourishes throughout, the prime focus of the first half feels to me to be the perfection of that trademark funk blend.

But my favourite half of the album is the second half, because the last five tracks are somehow more perfectly prog than anything else the band has ever done, despite the conventionally short song lengths. Again, it’s the musical ethos that is indescribably realizing a musical perfection with a prog focus that were have not heard before realized in such a beautiful way.

“Careful What You Wish For” is sonic storytelling of the most engrossing sort. Every detail matters, and it’s all effective. Aubrey Ellefson’s keyboards paint a masterpiece of a picture.

“Everybody Loves a Scandal” is absolutely incredible and defies description. Its wit and good humour is blended with deadly serious and uncompromising musical excellence. It also has the most magnificent bridge, which you can hear ramping up just after 3:11 minutes into the song. Its emotional cadence is positively cathartic and a truly magic moment that cements this album’s status as legendary.

My favourite track is “Catch Us If You Can” because it is the most unrestrained prog shred-fest. Listen to the unbelievable two minutes ensuing after 2:57 into the song. You cannot hear it and deny that Brass Camel is unquestionably one of the greatest bands ever. After hearing this, I just threw my hands up in the air and declared them my new favourite band.

“Last Call” unfurls its musical treasures so slowly and majestically you almost forget it is a terrifying song about the worst madnesses of a civil war. But its magnificent tension and pacing has me feeling that this could easily be a track on the legendary Genesis album Foxtrot, as I imagine the Peter Gabriel of that era singing it. Its musical potency is truly gripping. Daniel Sveinson’s electric guitar solo puts the icing on the cake, making it sound like Brian May’s guitar tech showed up to flip a switch on Daniel to have him inspire us all to throw peace signs in the air.

“This Is Goodbye” ends the album with a perfect union of funk and prog as it tells the true-life tale of undersea disaster. Curtis Arsenault’s deep-diving bass lines are a prog fan’s dream come true. The whole band follows along for another amazing adventure.

With Brass Camel (2026), concluding an epic quest, Brass Camel has brought back for us a priceless treasure: an unforgettable album of inexhaustible wealth that repays every listen. With this album they invite us to join the legend and the adventure. Here is a band that sounds like nobody else but themselves. It gives me joy to tell as many people as I can about them.

Read our fifteen-day coverage of its release for more details about Brass Camel as found on Progarchy.com.

Brass Camel, Brass Camel (2026) ★★★★★ A+ 10/10