BETTER BY FAR

Caravan's Better By Far is easily the least loved of their 1970s studio releases - Cunning Stunts and Blind Dog At St. Dunstan's both, to my eyes, seem to have more enthusiastic defenders than this one.

For my part, I think it's fine - but not more than fine. Here, Caravan's evolution from being a keystone of the Canterbury prog scene to a slickly produced progressive pop unit is complete - Tony Visconti's even here behind the production desk, and for my part I think he manages to handle the material deftly and invest it with a bit more warmth than was evident on Blind Dog.

This is useful, because the material here is not quite as interesting. It's hard to deny that a lot of Caravan's distinctive musical personality has drained away by this point - though twinklings of their whimsical sense of humour are still in evidence in the lyrics - and what's left behind is melodic soft rock with progressive leanings.

For my part, I actually quite like Better By Far - particularly closing track Nightmare, a highlight of the album highlight of the album and one of the few numbers from it which would pop up on Caravan live setlists in later years. The material here feels like it sits well alongside the sort of thing Camel were doing at around this time - Pye's closing guitar solo on Nightmare in particular feels like something Andy Latimer would have whipped out. These parallels are especially apt because this would have been when Caravan co-founder Richard Sinclair was with Camel. Indeed, Jan Schelhaas would go on from here to join Camel in 1978, during the time when Caravan took a little rest.

Perhaps Better By Far is evidence that the hiatus was well-timed. Though ultimately quite pleasant, there's also not much on here beyond Nightmare which truly stands out from the pack. And if the poppier direction of the album was a bid for commercial success, it was truly horrendously timed, because the hot new thing on the market - punk - broke right just as the album was coming out.

Sure, if you're in the mood for sophisticated progressive pop you're not going to spurn Better By Far for a spin of the Damned's debut album - but audiences were spoiled for choice when it came for sophisticated, smooth, well- produced pop-rock at around this time, whilst punk was something fresh and new. The terrible commercial performance of the album is all too easy to explain. But its crummy critical reception is a little less justified.

Granted, if you only care about Caravan's most progressive and ground-breaking work, there's nothing for you here - but you had pretty damn slim pickings on Cunning Stunts or Blind Dog, for that matter. And if their soothing pop side, something present in their sound since their debut, has some appeal to you, then Better By Far is a reasonable outing of that, though I'd still say of the 1970s prog-pop triptych of Cunning Stunts, Blind Dog At St. Dunstans, and Better By Far, I'd call Blind Dog the mutts' nuts.