IN THE LAND OF GREY AND PINK

Caravan

Canterbury Scene

4.31 | 2014 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

A quite well-known album (At least around here) featuring some very intricate and lovely melodies. One of the ''happier'' albums of this era.

I am quite unfamiliar with Caravan aside from this album. Of course, since the quality of these 5 recordings are quite high, I'll need to check out some more albums before I rate the band as a whole. But let me tell you this; this album is truly stunning! Great musicianship, fun and thoughtful lyrics, and of course the sweet melodies.

The bulk of the work here is very well written. The opening 'Golf Girl' is a quite commercial yet very satisfactory number, and after the quite humorous verses a great flute solo pops up. 'Winter Wine' is a beautiful, slow-paced prog number. Standing at 7 minutes, it's the second longest composition on the album. The introduction features sweet vocals and a lovely little acoustic guitar, before charging into the rest of the more proggy verses. In the middle of this song is an extremely delicious keyboard solo. Grade A stuff right there!

'Pigs Will Fly', undeniably the low-point of the album, is an overtly cheery tune that I'm not too fond of. It's got a great drum rhythm though, however the vocals are not on par with those on the rest of album. The succesing song, the title track, is a beautiful song reminiscent of Golf Girl. Intricate acoustic guitars and absolutely great lyrics! There's a lovely piano solo as well. Superb song.

'Nine Feet Underground', the albums 22 minute long showcase is, like many other epics, split into several parts, aptly named quite humorously. It's a beast, with stunning soloing throughout and wonderful chord sequences in all parts. However it tends to drag a bit in the middle part, and it feels as if though most of the focus was laid at the beginning and closing sections. Great keyboard work and singing throughout, it flows very well and could very well stand up there with the rest of highly praised epics.

All in all, In The Land of Grey And Pink is a very consistent album, and aside from 'Pigs Will Fly' it's undeniably very proggy. Great Canterbury material, recommended to anyone who enjoys a great, fun prog album. Four stars!

Axel Dyberg | 4/5 | 2007-10-23

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