Waterloo Lily - CARAVAN***

Waterloo Lily/Nothing At All-Its Coming Soon-Nothing At All/Songs & Signs/Aristocracy/The Love In Your Eye-To Catch Me A Brother-Subsultus-Deboucement-Tilbury Kecks/The World Is Yours

Caravan, like many other Canterbury progressive bands, never succeeded very much commercially, despite their reputation for innovation and creativity. Waterloo Lily is more jazz influenced than previous releases thanks to the arrival of a new keyboardist.

“This album is slightly jazzier that the previous effort, due to the change of keyboardist, and is yet another masterpiece of the Canterbury sub-genre, which has lost absolutely nothing of its charm and wit over the years. This is classic prog of the highest calibre and an absolute must in any serious prog record collection.”

“They continue their move into more conventional directions. This one is semi-commercial soft rock with prog influences, guitar, keyboards, some flute and strings.”

“The most underrated of Caravan’s early albums. The addition of a new keyboard player brings the already mounting jazzy tendencies to the fore, and adds a bluesy touch. So, this is a different sort of Caravan album, but by no means bad.”

“This British prog band gets a new keyboardist and go for a much jazzier approach. Electric pianos replace the fuzzed out farfisa organ, plus some smooth and jazzy guitar parts. It's a change in sound and it works, still carrying the classic Caravan sound.”

“This recording has a decidedly jazzier feel than previous efforts but does not sway too far from Caravan's sound. As usual the musicianship is solid, as are the compositions. Following this effort Caravan would begin a slow but gradual decline in recording efforts with the comings and goings of members.”

“This is a very organized sounding band, even in their longer, improvised pieces. There is a strong jazz influence, but also some traces of classical and psychedelic rock. The lyrics range from hippie love type stuff to the bawdy title track. Pretty good stuff, and worth buying if you like progressive music.” “The music balances itself out rather nicely as an accessible album on many levels. The material ranges from rockers to love songs, over jazzy jams, which never let the overly catchy melodies get bogged down in repetition. This excellent balance between accessibility and technicality should have afforded them more popularity.”