TRAVELLING WAYS

Personally I have seen a few Caravan releases that are flirting with the scandalous (such as the Cool Waters versions, amongst others), but this one is not far from taking the cake and by far: Remember the two late 90's releases where Caravan was revisiting their own past with a new modern look, giving us a rap version (well almost ;o)) of For Richard and where they were slagging good ol' Phil?? These were called All Over You and Over You Two. Well, if you have those two, you've got 75% of this double disc affair. Add half of the not that strong album Battle Of Hastings, throw in a tad of the Astoria release and you have this completely useless double disc affair. Obviously another try from HTD via Castle to offer the fans another chance to buy this material that most of us don't want nowadays, if admittedly it was still interesting at release time, because it was all we had back then to soothe out Caravan thirst. But this turn of millennium rehash was completely uncalled for. Best avoided, really. What really annoys me is that sometimes, I have seen this as the only thing left in the Caravan section of megastores, so how can we expect to have newcomers to Caravan's universe if all they got to try is the unneeded and uninteresting stuff.

Sad and best avoided, really!!! And rated accordingly

Cunning

HTD Records have gone to the well a number of times in an effort to squeeze out every last penny they can from that part of Caravan's back catalogue which they own. There is however no disguising the fact that Caravan recorded their best albums during their earlier years with the Deram label.

During their time on HTD, the band did re-record a number of their older songs, the results being reasonably faithful renditions which certainly sound similar to the originals. In addition, several live recordings were released by the label, which contained performances of some of the band's best know works. The result of all this is that at first glance, the track listing here looks like a reasonably well balanced selection, covering a wide cross section of the band's history. Look a bit closer though, and a certain amount of sleight of hand becomes apparent.

As for the music itself, this is a fine collection. The accent is perhaps a little too much on the whimsical pop side of the band which came to the fore on albums such as "Battle of Hastings". Old faithfuls like "For Richard" (Live) and "The dog the dog. . ." are included though, offering glimpses of the great Deram years.

Since this album is widely available at a budget price, it represents good value for those who have yet to savour the delights of this fine band. Once you have the taste though, you would be well advised to head for the chef's specials in the form of the Deram remasters of the band's early albums.