PARADISE FILTER

After The Battle of Hastings, Caravan would settle into a pattern of only producing one all-new all-original studio album per decade; Paradise FIlter is the one they put out in the 2010s. Mark Walker takes on the drums here, band co- founder Richard Coughlan having been too unwell to participate in the sessions. (He would die shortly before the album's release). As a result, Pye Hastings is the only original member left at this point, though the other band members aside from Walker are all Caravan veterans of a fairly reasonable vintage.

For a good long while - at least since the mid-to-late 1970s, I'd argue - Caravan have been more interested in cultivating their poppy soft rock side than their prog side; they still play their old prog standards in concert, but they show little inclination to produce new ones, instead producing mellow, grown-up pop-rock with Canterbury accents. For some listeners, that probably sounds terrible - but those listeners likely jumped off the Caravan bandwagon back around Better By Far. If, on the other hand, you don't mind Caravan's poppier moments, this will likely be a pleasing continuation of that direction.

For the most part, the album is fairly mellow, though there are some pieces like Dead Man Walking which incorporate enough drama and foreboding to be exciting even if they aren't that complex, so as far as Caravan's pop album goes, it's one of the more adventurous in terms of mood and tone.