THE ALBUM

Caravan's ninth record which opened up the eighties was a step down for the band. Just look at the cover. It's black and has a minimalistic design and I don't like to look at it. "Better by far" hadn't a very nice cover either but it was better. This album is the lowest rated Caravan album of all and I understand it. Though I don't think it's bad.

Three years had gone since the last record and the band consisted of Pye Hastings, the singer and guitarist, Dave Sinclair, the keyboard player, Geoff Richardson, the guitar, viola, flute player and singer, Richard Coughlan, the drummer and Dek Messecar, the bassist and singer. Three of five in the band were original members and Geoff had been in it since 1972 and Dek since 1976 so I must say there was a continuity in the band. The music though had changed and we wonder of course why. Many prog bands were confused in the early eighties and almost everyone changed direction.

Caravan fans who want to hear traditional Caravan songs has at least three songs to look forward to on this record.

"Watcha gonna tell me"(8/10) is absolutely best. It has great instrumentation: starts with flute and has a playful melody and a soft and unstopable attitude. Dave Sinclair's piano solo here is the very highligth on the record and the guitars too are great.

"Heartbreaker"(7/10) is also a funny tune which swings and makes the listeners happy. "Piano player"(7/10) has a beautiful atmosphere and Geoff's strings are great. I wish there had been more of that on this record. "Keepin' up de fences"(6/10= is a nice Pye song with velocity and a nice keyboard solo.

Otherwise the songs are quite vague. "Corner of me eye" is too simple, but I appreciate the rock'n'roll feeling(5/10), "Make yourself home"(5/10) is funny but a parenthesis and "Clear blue skye" is a rather boring reggae attempt(5/10). "Bright shiny day" works but nothing more(5/10) and fianly "Golden mile"(3/10) is very bad. That is not a worthy Caravan song in any way. Over all I think the A-side is much better than the B-side but the over all result of the record is quite an enjoyable thing.

I especially enjoy those first mentioned tracks and this is a Caravan record with glimpses of its former glory. For me this is a clear three star record!