Caravan was pretty much dead when it comes to Studio Albums. During 80's they had two, during 90's one and 00's one more (but they released a huge load of live albums during this time).
In 2013 the band announced a crowdfunding campaign for their new studio album Paradise Filter (2013) and I was happy to see that the campaign was 146% completed. I was happy because is nice to see a crowdfunsing campaign that is fair when it comes to the values and rewards and unlikely so many others that try to rip of their own fans.
Anyway, I wasn't very excited when I've heard some snippets of the album and I thought that the album would be a huge flop. That's why it took me over a year to actually listen to it.
Another huge thing on Caravan world in 2013 was that original drummer of the band Richard Coughlan passed away in December of that year and had been in poor health for quite some years. Paradise Filter (2013) is the only album of Caravan that doesn't have Richard playing his unique style...
Well, it turned out that Paradise Filter (2013) is a damn solid album that can stand well against many of the classic works of the band. They have what they always had, a feet in the Pop a feet in the Prog. I've seen many people saying that the band went Pop on this album.... I think they really don't know what Caravan was really about as they were always a big Pop act all the way. Weird because some many really Pop bands are labeled as Prog... anyway.
Paradise Filter (2013) is a bit less than 50 minutes long and is a solid 4 stars and although is no masterpiece you can hear it at any given time. Tracks like the opening 'All This Could Be Yours', 'Fingers In The Till', 'Pain In The Arse' and the title track that closes the album show they still have gas to go.
