THE WORLD IS YOURS - THE ANTHOLOGY 1968-1976

All remastered and all good. A box set for newbies and completists. I bought this at HMV on Oxford Street in May 2010 on my trip to London, so it's been out for a bit at least. I already have most of this on CD but not all of it remastered. I prefer the first 3 albums by Caravan as a whole(and The New Symphonia), but if you're looking for all of the highlights from "Waterloo Lily" right up to "Blind Dog At St. Dunstans", then this is a sure bet to please(you get 2.5 discs of remastered post "In The Land Of Grey And Pink"). Also included are live tracks previously unavailable(afaik). A wonderful booklet and great packaging. If you're a Canterbury fanatic, you must have this. A true masterpiece overview of the first part of Caravan's career.

The thing with box-sets is that they either attract those already addicted or puts off those who are interested but are put off by the enormous wealth of out-takes and other stuff, generally of importance only to those already familiar with the originals. Well, generally speaking anyway. Accordingly it's hard rating box-sets because of that. But there are exceptions. Camel's "Rainbow's end"-box and this, "The world is yours", are both splendid examples of the ultimate box-sets. They attract both those already familiar and those interested, without alienating either. A box containing 32 songs is bound to have the odd track you don't like, as with all compilations. Nevertheless I'm bound giving it 5 stars, simply because it is such an astounding compilation, housed in a beautiful cover. There's simply no other rating available. If you're new to Caravan, this is actually not a bad way to start. And if you're a Caravan-fan already, like me, it's quite a treat to own and dissect this wonderful compilation of studio- tracks, both previously released and some unreleased, and live recordings. It's the cream of prog-rock from one of the most endearing, most brilliant, most english of prog-bands. I love it!