Waterloo Lily

Caravan was always known for their great, catchy vocal melodies, and I believe the ones found on Waterloo Lily to be their very best.I love singing along to these tunes. I also love just sitting back and feeling good as I absorb the wonderful and melodic instrumental jams. These jams seem to flow carefully and beautifully into other instrumental parts. This sure is one likeable band. Because of that, I'm surprised more people out there aren't familiar with them. It's hard to believe Caravan hasn't become one of those "forgotten favorites". They seriously deserve it. They deserved to be more well-known in America while they were popular in the early 70's too.And WOW!!! I think I finally found the best instrumental jam I've honestly ever heard! "Nothing at All" is 10 minutes of pure perfection! Alright, so those noisy sax moments can probably be tossed away, but besides that, the rest of the track is absolutely fantastic. It reminds me of a cross between Jethro Tull and a popular Jeff Beck song from his Blow By Blow album. Wow, and I thought Gong's "Boring" was a brilliant jam (granted it IS a brilliant song!) but Caravan's take on the instrumental jamming... they really hit the right sequence of notes with "Nothing At All".Honest, caring lyrics, pretty vocal melodies, and heavenly instrumental jams. That's what you can expect from this album, and the Caravan albums that came before and after this one. I'm not exaggerating either. It's just a beautiful thing. What a great band. Pick up Waterloo Lily today.

Not as good as Gray and Pink or For Girls.. But still very good. Tends to get a little monotonous here and there due to its more jazzy feel throughout. The bonus material containa some really nice Pye Hastings tunes.

As good as IN THE LAND OF GREY AND PINK was, it was clear that Richard Sinclair was hoping to lead Caravan into a slightly jazzier direction. David Sinclair's departure allowed Richard to do just that. David Sinclair's replacement, Steve Miller from Delivery (and brother of guitarist Phil) gave Caravan just the right amount of a jazz infusion without stripping Caravan of their unique sound. Less synths/mellotron this time around, and more piano, acoustic and electric. WATERLOO LILY proved to be jazzier, harder-hitting, better-produced and more professional-sounding than their previous albums (listen to Richard Sinclair's bass & Richard Coughlan's drums - wow!). Lol Coxhill guests on sax and Phil Miller guests on guitar. HIGHLY recommended to fans of Hatfield & the North and National Health.Sinclair and Miller left after this one leaving Caravan to Pye Hastings increasingly commercial excursions, FOR GIRLS WHO GROW PLUMP IN THE NIGHT being the exception. FOR GIRLS... ended up being the last great Caravan album.

For the lovers of Caravan's music. This CD is an excellent production that brought me back in time. If you collect them, do not miss this one.

Waterloo Lily : A change of pace for Caravan with the (temporary) loss of Dave Sinclair on keyboards. More Canterbury music

I've been into Caravan since the mid 1970ies although I only had 3 of their albums. I finally decided to increase my Caravan catelog & decided the final CD I would get is Waterloo Lily. I don't rate it near their top but I can see how they were progressing at the time into what they became (an almost forgotten jazzy folk blues rock band)I would reccommend this CD only for fans. For non fans try the live with the New Symphoma CD, as well as the Land of Pink & Gray, Blind Dog at St.Dunstans & Cunning Stunts (I always have to be careful not to miss the C & S up). I always wish I had seen them live.

Waterloo Lily marks the first lineup change in Caravan. David Sinclair left to briefly join Matching Mole. And a new keyboardist came in: Steve Miller, no, not the American Steve Miller who gave us The Joker and Fly Like an Eagle, but an Englishman named Steve Miller who was the brother of Matching Mole and Hatfield & the North's Phil Miller. As it's plainly obvious that Miller preferred the electric piano where D. Sinclair preferred the Hammond organ. The electric piano made Caravan move in to a more jazzy direction. And while Waterloo Lily isn't as good as In the Land of Grey & Pink, it still has some great material, like the title track, "The Love in Your Eye", and "Song & Signs". There tends to a bunch of lenghty jazzy jamming as well that might turn a few people off, but to me, it isn't bad. This was their first album to feature an orchestra as well, as demonstrated on "The Love in Your Eye". Sadly this was the last Caravan album to feature Richard Sinclair, as he would leave to join the likes of Hatfield & the North and Camel. While Waterloo Lily isn't the best album in Caravan's catalog, it's still well worth having.

3 1/2 StarsA fantastic introduction into some of the more easy-access audible virtues lying dormant in most non-progressive listener's mind's awaits in this humble concoction of potent songwriting mixed with technical prowess. The music, while feeling at times a bit dated (awfully hard to have escaped that curse for most prog bands in that nonetheless glorious musical era), balances itself out rather nicely as an accessible album on many levels. The material ranges from rockers to love songs, influenced over jazzy, jam based guidance, which never lets the sometimes overly catchy melodies get bogged down in repetition. This excellent balance between accessibility and technicality should have afforded this band more popularity.