CARAVAN: If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You (PROGRESSIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Less than a year after their first album, Caravan comes back with a new record with an improbable title, "If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You", proving if it was still necessary the mischievous spirit of the band members. Between this new opus and the previous one, Caravan was forced to change label, Verve having ceased its activities on the British soil. Fortunately, they quickly signed with Deram and could devote themselves to the recording of their next album.

If "Caravan" seduced by its pretty pop songs, "If I Could" is much more ambitious and defines the style that will characterize Caravan for the years to come. On the program, eight tracks with very varied lengths, from the short 'Asforteri 25' of 1'21 to the long suite of more than 14 minutes later known under the shortened name of 'For Richard'. With the very varied styles also: if three titles still adopt the format of pop songs ('If I Could', 'As I Feel I Die' and 'Hello Hello'), the two very short 'Asforteri 25' and 'Limits' take the shape of delicate breaths. But it is on the three long suites of the album that the interest of the amateur of progressive rock is going to be naturally carried.

Suites which announce the color by their titles, constituted by the juxtaposition of the names given to the various sections which compose them. Thus 'And I Wish I Were Stoned / Don't Worry' includes two movements where 'With an Ear to the Ground / You Can Make It / Martinian / Only Cox / Reprise' has five and 'Can't Be Long Now / Françoise / For Richard / Warlock' four. Simple but not very conducive to the memorization of these long titles.

Another disadvantage, more musical this one, this cutting can let fear a little artificial collage of different themes to constitute a long but disjointed piece. And it is indeed the case of 'And I Wish I Were Stoned / Don't Worry' which does not even make the effort of a transition between two parts certainly pleasant but without common point. The two other suites avoid this pitfall by more careful transitions or oppositions and because they give pride of place to instrumental escapes and long improvisations whose character is less clear-cut than the vocal parts.

If the sound recording is still rather muffled, it is however of much better quality than on the previous album. The quality of the melodies is quite exceptional, whether it is Hastings' pop compositions or David Sinclair's progressive suites: fluidity of the themes, delicate arrangements, freshness, marriage of the voices which have nothing exceptional but whose combination is of the most beautiful effect, beautiful balance between vocal and instrumental parts, audacious finds, the whole wrapped in a relaxation tinted with melancholy. If the Hammond organ is omnipresent, splashing the album with its saturated chords and its wild solos, Richard Sinclair's bass grooves delightfully. As for Jimmy Hastings, Pye's brother, the fifth musketeer who will never officially be part of the band, he lights up the album with his numerous flute and saxophone improvisations, as aerial as inspired.

With "If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You", Caravan finds a style that he invents, that of the Canterbury school, that he shares with his turbulent cousin Soft Machine, at the same time light and melancholic, relaxed and deep. A classic that has become unavoidable. - Official website

CARAVAN

IF I COULD DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN, I'D DO IT ALL OVER YOU

DECCA

PROGRESSIVE ROCK