Album title: If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You
Artist: Caravan
Nationality: English
Label: Decca
Chronology: Second
Grade: A
Previous Experience of this Artist: Zero
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Landmark value: Unsure
Tracklisting: If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You/ And I Wish I Were Stoned/Don’t Worry/ As I Feel I Die/With an Ear to the Ground (You Can Make It/Martinian/Only Cox/Reprise)/Hello Hello/Asforteri 25/Can’t Be Long Now (Francoise/For Richard/Warlock)/Limits
Comments: Another stalwart of the Canterbury Scene, Caravan kick off their interestingly-titled second album with the interesting title track, although it’s far from interesting, quite boring indeed, a sort of blues boogie which seems to ask the question “Who do you think you are?” mostly. “And I Wish I Were Stoned” is better, nice gentle sort of song that reminds me of the Supertramp album reviewed earlier, and “As I Feel I Die” is another soft little thing, driven on gentle organ with a restrained vocal but then it kicks up and gets a bit of life injected into it. Think I preferred it as it was to be honest. Good organ solo though. One of two multi-part suites, “With an Ear to the Ground” is nice, but the problem I’m seeing with Caravan is that it’s all a little, what, bland? There’s nothing that really stands out to me here. Also the sound dips so that it’s sometimes hard to hear what’s being sung or played.
“Hello Hello” has a little more life, but I’m finding it hard to keep my interest in this album; honestly, if, as I read, this was the single, it surely can’t have inspired many to buy the album. It’s just so drab. “Asforteri 25” is a short little instrumental, then the other suite is a proper one, over fourteen minutes and broken into three parts. “Can’t Be Long Now” opens with a soft (yeah again) gentle reflective passage, again barely-audible vocals, then in I what I assume is the second part of the suite it blasts up on warbly organ and gets going, and is decent up to the end, then the final track is a short flute-driven instrumental.
Favourite track(s): And I Wish I Were Stoned
Least favourite track(s): everything else really
Overall impression: Meh. I just don’t get it. I found this quite boring, bland and uninteresting, and have already forgotten any of the melodies. Most of the time it was cut too low for me to hear much. I believe their next album is considered their best, so I’ll hope for a major improvement, but at the moment I sure don’t think much of Caravan.
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