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

Caravan's second album shows a startling amount of growth since their debut. In the two years since they issued that psych-pop charmer they'd honed their craft, improved their songwriting, developed a taste for epics, started flirting with a little jazz-rock (perhaps inspired by the success of their pals in the Soft Machine), and become the tight unit seen on this album. The band had gone from the psychedelic followers of their debut to innovators in their own right, presenting a Canterburified vision of psychedelic jazz-influenced prog with a more mellow and sunnier attitude than the Softs, with the occasional outbreak of more energetic playing. The end result was good enough that a few months before recording the album Frank Zappa (who was acting as compere at a festival Caravan were performing at, due to a snafu with the Mothers' work visas) spontaneously joined them onstage for a jam - and when your band is good enough that Zappa is that keen to play with you, you know you've arrived.

The highlight of the album is usually said to be "For Richard", and I can't disagree with that, but then I can't find any songs on here that fall particularly short of its standards. One for when you need to relax a bit, maybe, but still a masterpiece of the early Canterbury sound.