IN THE LAND OF GREY AND PINK

The perfect Caravan album, written I suspect, with the assistance of a fair amount of "punkweed" or similar. The lyrics are full of wierd quirks, the singing, shared by Richard sinclair and Pye Hastings, captures the mood of the album well and the music is beautifully constructed and executed. Dave Sinclair is a masterful keyboards player who avoids the excesses of the Emerson/Wakeman school and they use a number of brass and woodwind instruments to compensate for the lack of a conventional lead guitarist. No track stands out - they are uniformly excellent, though the mood varies somewhat from the gentle Winter Wine to the repetitive chorus of Love to Love You. The title track is a masterpiece with clear drug influences; how else could you come up with "they'll be coming back again, those nasty grumbly- grimblies, oh they're climbing down your chimney, yes they're trying to get in"? The second side is one long piece, subdivided into pieces with some of the silliest titles ever, yet this just Caravan not taking themselves too seriously. It all progresses and hangs together well and is one of the great pieces of prog rock. As is the album! If you have a really decent turntable, buy it on vinyl (but be prepared to pay £20+!) for the artwork and the superb sound quality.