Trollheart

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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Trollheart

Album title: Atom Heart Mother
Artist: Pink Floyd
Nationality: English
Label: EMI
Chronology: Fifth
Grade: A
Landmark value: Pretty huge. The first “proper” album to feature what would be the classic lineup, indeed, the only lineup of the band after Barrett, the third album being a soundtrack and the fourth that mixed solo/live thing they called Ummagumma, this was probably the first time Floyd could show people what they were made of, how different their music without Syd could be, and indeed it took them to their first number one, at least in the UK. It was also, as mentioned in the album list earlier, their first collaboration with Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis, a relationship that would continue through almost all of their albums.
Tracklisting: Atom Heart Mother (Father Shout/Breast Milky/Mother Fore/Funky Dung/Mind Your Throats Please/Remergence)/If/Summer ‘68/Fat Old Sun/Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast (Rise and Shine/Sunny Side Up/Morning Glory)
Comments: Opening with a 23-minute suite might be ambitious, but this is Pink Floyd we’re talking about, and despite the success and acclaim they later achieved, they never seemed to be a band who went in search of hit singles, so they would have been playing to their growing fanbase here. Still, an interesting choice to use an orchestra, especially as somewhat rival band Yes had done so the same year. But who got their album out first? Okay, Jon and the boys did. Not saying this was copied by any means, but an interesting coincidence. Nice organ and keyboard work from Rick Wright - is all this going to be instrumental? No, I have never heard this album before. Sue me. The average settlement is ten thousand dollars...

Gilmour showing off his chops now, glad no doubt to be firmly established with the band, being basically the “new guy” for the last few years I would guess. Winning plenty of fans with those solos surely. I like the choir here - maybe foreshadowing Clare Torrey’s turn on “The Great Gig in the Sky” some three years later. It also presages “Echoes” on Meddle the year after this. It’s an interesting piece, but I question whether it would have sufficiently held a newcomer’s attention through so long a period. Still, given this was the birth of prog, and with that the super-epic track, maybe.

After that incredibly long piece - surely Floyd’s longest ever? I’d have to check but I would think so - “If” is a mere four minutes and change, nice little acoustic ballad which features Roger Waters singing. Okay not acoustic, there is organ and electric guitar in it, but certainly starts that way and maintains the feel of an acoustic song. “Summer ‘68” is Wright’s contribution, and features, not surprisingly, a piano melody, though at least while it starts out as another ballad it breaks out halfway and has some life, including a nice slice of brass. Gilmour’s song is in fact the one which lasted the test of time, and most Floyd fans will know “Fat Old Sun”, one of the first solo songs he wrote for the band. Another folky kind of basically acoustic number before it later takes flight on Gilmour’s electric guitar, it does stand head and shoulders above the rest, though even at that it’s still not what you’d call something to get really excited about.

And one more epic to close. The weird “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” runs this time only (!) for thirteen minutes, effects-laden with muttering I guess narration - couldn’t call it singing as there is no music and no tune - then the music starts and it’s piano-driven, kind of classical sound till the guitar joins in. There’s a lot of stopping the music, bringing in sotto voce talking, some effects, and to be perfectly honest, for me, it would have worked better without them, as the music is pretty fine on its own. I guess in some ways we’re hearing a very nascent version of the kind of speech/dialogue that would surface on Dark Side of the Moon, but whereas on that album it works perfectly, here it just doesn’t.

Favourite track(s): Summer ‘68, Fat Old Sun, Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast (sans the effects and speech)
Least favourite track(s):
Overall impression: I’m not sure whether you could say the ghost of Syd Barrett had yet to be exorcised, or whether it’s fairer to say the band were still finding their feet, with or without him, but the suite aside, this sounds something like a small step, if at all, from the first two albums, not a huge shift in musical direction. In many ways, it could almost be considered a folk rock album, certainly the second side anyway. Meddle would push the envelope a little more, but really we’re looking at 1973 before what would become known as the signature Floyd sound would be born. Right now, seems to me the Atom Heart Mother is still in labour. A while to go yet before she gives birth to a rock legend.
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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018