WATERLOO LILY

Oh David, where did you go? David you ask...why David Sinclair is my all time favorite keyboard player and Caravan is in my top 5 favorite prog bands. Okay, out went my hero, in came an unknown. Steve Miller brings a heady amount of jazzy finger tapping on the keyboards and for me is a decent replacement. Will the songs suffer? Well actually no. The album starts with the title track and is one of my favorite comical/whimsy-style songs by the boys. Richard Sinclair's bass and bassy vocals make this track a winner, (on top of the hillarious lyrics) and half way through it jams very nicely. Coughlin drumming throughout the album is another standout, (man, he's SO underrated!). Things change dramatically with the second track, "Nothing At All" is a flat-out jazz tune going over 12 minutes. There's some lulls towards the center, but it's a decent change of pace. From there on we're back with ultra catchy Pye Hastings tunes that smack of classic Caravan. I mean, there's is NO ONE that plays these types of proggy/catchy/humorous tunes and play them as well. There are many Canterbury bands that try, but they can't match the sheer muscianship, lyrical and catchiness then Caravan. Pye's mega-soft vocals on "Songs & Signs" and "The World Is Yours" just goes right to your soul. Plus, there's a mini-epic in "The Love In Your Eyes". Unfortunately, the bonus track on the re-master is the worse out of all their re-masters. But it's not the album proper, so my rating is a super solid 4 stars for my favorite Canter band. Bravo guys, but bring back my David! (Yes, he does come back ;-)