King Crimson - In The Court of The Crimson King (1969)

King Crimson - In The Court of The Crimson King (1969)

Rating: 13

"For I Fear Tomorrow, I'll Be Crying,"

Best Song: 21st Century Schizoid Man

Worst Song: Moonchild

     I shall be reviewing King Crimson's albums, all 13 of them. For the sake of saving money, I won't be reviewing any of the live albums yet. I own Absent Lovers, Live in Toronto 2015, The Great Deceiver, and Radical Action to Unseat The Hold of Monkey Mind, but I won't be reviewing them until at least all of the studio albums have been finished. King Crimson is my favorite band technically, but I will try not to endlessly gush over all of their albums, because frankly, some of them don't deserve praise. However, some bias may be present, so if you'd like, lower all of these scores by 1-2 if you're not a fanatic unless I state otherwise. Unless you're not a fanatic and consider my score the correct one, in which cool. But this is just a fanatic warning right at the very beginning.

     Anyway, what can be said about this album that hasn't been said? This is the root of the tree that is progressive rock. From this album, emerged progressive rock, fully formed and ready to grace the world with its complicated song form and odd instrumental choices. The background of this album has been stated by hundreds of articles, so I won't spend a long time talking about it here. After their previous band, Giles Giles and Fripp, drummer Michael Giles and guitar player Robert Fripp recruited singer Greg Lake, lyricist Peter Sinfield, and multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald to perform a form of music that had been toyed with, but never fully fleshed out: Classical-Jazz-Rock. After playing a few successful concerts, this album was released at just the right time in 1969, and it exploded. Despite only having 5 tracks in just over 40 minutes, it was embraced by the overall public and met with rave reviews (other than Robert Christgau, but whatever).

     Does it deserve this praise however? As you can see by my rating, I certainly think so. This album encompasses everything that prog should aspire to be. By that, I don't mean that every prog album should sound like this, I mean that they should try to live up to their name and be progressive. This album came out of seemingly nowhere, fully formed and out of this world. Many bands continued this formula, and while some just repeated the tropes found in this album, others saw it as a sign to continue to try and innovate, no matter how strange the territory. Sometimes, it would fail miserably, but the influence this album had on good music as well is undeniable.

     But enough about the influence, what about the music?? Well to sum it up in one word: amazing. This is a varied album for the genre, starting off with the progressive thunder of the opener, "21st Century Schizoid Man," one of the all time great tracks from the band. The amount of power, but control over the power shown in this song is mind-blowingly amazing, and the way that the end of the song freaks out, then cuts out right into the flutes of the next song, "I Talk to The Wind," is a testament to album flow. The chaos of the first track moving right into the calm and carefree attitude of the second song is simply amazing. The song itself has one of the best melodies you're likely to find around the era period, and the perfect streak that the album started with the first track is completely continued here. The third song on Side one, "Epitaph," bridges from the second track, and continues the flow going. This one is nearly a combo of the first two songs. It is not frantic, but it replaces the carefree attitude of "Wind," with one of anxiety and worriment. The lyrics up to this point are not very good, but they sound amazing in the context of the album, and this song is possibly the greatest example of that. Even though it's 9 minute, it feels half the length, and the lyrics add to that in a way that is astounding.

     At this point, why shouldn't the album get a perfect score?? It was a pretty much perfect side? Side two unfortunately is why this album falls a bit in my eyes. I quite like the first song, "Moonchild," for about 6-7 minutes, but Fripp and the gang fall into their excess just a bit. That just a bit however, is the straw that breaks the camel's back, because after the very pleasant two minute pop song that comprises the beginning of "Moonchild," comes 10 minutes of very quiet improvised, and not very well produced noodling. This takes up nearly a quarter of the record. It is certainly tolerable, but it is nowhere near the greatness of the rest of the record. In fact, it knocks the score down by 2 points. If only the other songs went on a bit longer to compensate for a 6-7 minute Moonchild, then we may have a runner-up for the greatest album of all time. It may still be a runner up, but a shorted "Moonchild" would put this in top 10 territory for me personally. 

     Fortunately, after the slight blemish that is "Moonchild," comes a song that stands toe to toe with every other song on the album: the title track. The drum fill that segues this song from the previous one is legendary, and it features one of the most beautiful choruses of all time, and a wordless one at that. The lyrics are medieval drivel, but they fit the song amazingly, and the fake ending is surprisingly effective. 

     Overall, this is one of the best albums of all time, and if you haven't listened to this album, check it out now. It's fantastic.