CANTERBURY TALES - THE BEST OF CARAVAN

I've often wondered whether it would have been better if Caravan emulated Genesis with a Best of Caravan - The Longs and a Best of Caravan - The Shorts. This album contains three of their best long pieces, "Can't be long now/ Francoise/ For Richard/ Warlock", "Nigel blows a tune/ Love's a friend/ Make It 76/ Dance of the seven paper hankies/ Hold grandad by the nose/ Honest I did!/ Disassociation/ 100% Proof" and "The love in your eye/ To catch me a brother/ Subsultus/ Debouchement/ Tilbury Kecks". They came from If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You (1970), In The Land of Grey and Pink (1971) and Waterloo Lily (1972) respectively.

However, "Nine Feet Underground" (the 22:40 monster) does make a costly addition. Conversely a beautiful piece of music (originally five distinct songs engineered into one) it does make space crammed on the two CD's and with some unusual and less popular song selections such as "Hoedown" (For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night) and "Virgin on the ridiculous" (Caravan & The New Symphonia) and even throwing the previously unreleased Aristocracy on there leaves little room for anything else.

Not trying to take anything away from the album, this is a fantastic compilation and an important addition for someone wishing to explore Caravan's longer songs - which are extremely good. Nonetheless, I can't help thinking that The Best of Caravan should have separated the long from the short songs and released them separately, just as Genesis did in '92/'93.