Review Summary: A great follower from the previous work. Probably the best.
“In The Land Of Grey And Pink” is the third studio album of Caravan that was released in 1971. The line up on the album is Pye Hastings, David Sinclair, Richard Sinclair and Richard Coughlan. The album also had the participation of Jimmy Hastings and John Beecham.
No name of the musical scene developed in the British city of Canterbury can be seen with as much force as Caravan, although many bands and artists have appeared and that even gave the name of one of the movements and variations of the progressive rock in the early 70’s. Along with Soft Machine, Caravan is perhaps the definitive Canterbury scene progressive rock act. Less jazzy than their more famous neighbours, Caravan wasn’t as heavy handed as their more critically lauded peers. But, what they did have was a much firmer grasp of pop dynamics and nowhere was this more obvious than their 1971 album, “In The Land Of Grey And Pink” which is, for many, Caravan’s definitive masterpiece.
“In The Land Of Grey And Pink” is also perhaps the best album of the Canterbury scene and is probably the very first Canterbury album you should check out. This is a true English musical strangeness tempered with a little whimsy, just what the strand asks for, with a lot of prog rock, jazz and psychedelic music. With “In The Land Of Grey And Pink”, Caravan reached artistic maturity, succeeding for the first time in blending romantic melody and progressive innovation with extreme simplicity. With this third episode the band manages to find the right formula that perfects the progressive solutions by accentuating the melodic component in an elegant and precise style, with curated arrangements that have preserved its charm over the years. The album contains an undeniable and decidedly sense of humor and charm, really.
“In The Land Of Grey And Pink” would mark the end of the band’s premiere line up. Co-founder David Sinclair would leave Caravan to form Matching Mole with Soft Machine drummer and vocalist Robert Wyatt in 1971. Another also interesting thing is the cover art of the album, which over time has become one of the icons of the English prog rock scene, with its vaguely Tolkienian setting entirely played on “grey and pink” tones, according with the album’s title.
For many, “In The Land Of Grey And Pink” isn’t only considered the best Caravan’s album but it has even been voted frequently as the best album in the entire Canterbury scene. The music performed here is very relaxed. The melodies are casually shaken out of the sleeve. At a first glance, the album seems very unspectacular for the most part, but if we listen to the album very carefully we can see that it isn’t. In reality, the music flows. You just have to let yourself drift and then you can experience the beauty of its music. This is an album with five tracks. The side one on the LP is made up of four light and nice tracks. The side two is made up by one track, the suite track, the central piece on the album.
So, “In The Land Of Grey And Pink” has five tracks. “Golf Girl” is a typically British song with funny lyrics. The highlight is the creative organ performance giving the tone through a very beautiful melodic music. “Winter Wine” has a Richard’s vocal line that reminds me of his passage through Camel in the end of the 70’s. It has an instrumental part with a simple guitar section very pleasant to hear. “Love To Love (And Tonight Pigs Will Fly)” sounds simple, but it has its peculiarities. It’s a song that is a bit misleading in several ways. It can be seen as just a pure pop song but it has a prog feature, but almost camouflaged. It’s apparently sweet and innocent but it also has obscure touches. The title track is a simple song. It’s well cadenced by bass, drums and acoustic guitar. It has a beautiful piano solo in the middle of the song. “Nine Feet Underground” is the best part of the album, the suite track. It’s an almost 23-minute epic divided into 8 chapters. It’s a great mix of progressive and psychedelic music, with several pieces of soil spreading through. But what makes this song so great is that it remains interesting in its entirety. All instruments interact all the time to provide this adventurous result that is abundant in creativity and melody. It’s one of the greatest prog rock suites made in the 70’s.
Conclusion: “In The Land Of Grey And Pink” is quite simply, a perfect album from Caravan. It has very clever lyrics, great musicianship and excellent vocals. This is a great blend of prog and a clever album that delivers solidly from start to finish and every track is just that good. It’s really a prog rock classic album and it’s simply one of the finest and most elegant progressive rock albums ever made. “In The Land Of Grey And Pink” is the greatest example of one of the great musical movements of that time, the Canterbury rock scene. This is a real jewel and that served as a mirror for so many other firecrackers that came next. It’s a playful period piece that has endured while so many bigger selling albums from that period have aged terribly. Perhaps a lot of this is down to the fact that it isn’t as over familiar as a lot of music from the early 70’s. But whatever the case, it’s an album that continues shining out in an era not short of great albums, really.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)
