(2022) Caravan - Blind Dog At St. Dunstans (1976, Japanese Limited Edition)


Review:
Blind Dog at St. Dunstans is the seventh studio album by Canterbury Scene rock band Caravan released in 1976. This album has a lighter feel than Caravan’s previous releases, shifting toward shorter, “poppier” songs. The lighter feel is due in part to the prominence of Pye Hastings on the album. He wrote and sang eight of nine songs. Moreover, Jan Schelhaas had replaced Dave Sinclair on keyboards, moving away from lengthy organ-based instrumentals toward piano and synthesizer. After the surprisingly warm reception of Cunning Stunts, it looked like Caravan could do no wrong. Unfortunately, the band’s next release was a major turn for the worse. New keyboard player Jan Schelhaas was part of the reason – his jazzy, up-tempo playing on every song regardless of the intended mood is one of the major problems here. It doesn’t help that the material here is generally weaker, lacking either compelling lyrics or interesting song structures. Only the opening “Here Am I” is up to the standard of their older material and played with any kind of finesse. What is missing on this album is the character that made Caravan something more than just another technically proficient band. The critical and popular reaction was devastating. Blind Dog at St. Dunstan‘s took a career that was headed for the big time and brought it firmly back to ground.


   


Track List:
01. Here Am I
02. Chiefs and Indians
03. A Very Smelly, Grubby Little Oik
04. Bobbing Wide
05. Come on Back
06. Oik (reprise)
07. Jack and Jill
08. Can You Hear Me
09. All the Way (with John Wayne’s Single-Handed Liberation of Paris)


Media Report:
Genre: prog-rock
Country: Canterbury, UK
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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