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. 

Lark's Tongues in Aspic- King Crimson

King Crimson- Lark's Tongues in Aspic (1973)

Rating: 11

"And I Swear I Like Your People, The Boys in The Band"

Best Song: Lark's Tongues in Aspic Part 1 & 2

Worst Song: Book Of Saturday

Track Listing:

1. Lark's Tongues In Aspic Part 1

2. Book of Saturday

3. Exiles

4. Easy Money

5. The Talking Drum

6. Lark's Tongues In Aspic Part 2

     This is the first album in the trilogy of "Wetton/Bruford/Fripp/Cross" lineup, and this one includes a second percussionist, the strange Jamie Muir, who was only on this album. This is also the last album in the trilogy I have to review, so I pretty much went backwards! Most people either put this as the best or second best of the trilogy, but I have to put this as the worst, unfortunately. 1/3 of it is great, but 2/3 of it is just good. Fripp and Cross are the stars on this album, as Wetton wasn't a confident singer yet, and Bruford, while great, needed a bit to round out his style to the Crimson sound. Jamie is fit for the sound, and probably is better than Bruford on this one.

     The album kicks off with "Lark's Tongues in Aspic Pt. 1," which is one of the greatest songs they ever did, but is not as good as "Fracture" or "Starless". It however, does have their most epic and heavy riff about 3 minutes in. The only part of the song I could live without is the David Cross by himself solo section. On this album, he's always better when other people are playing, so that section in the middle could be better. But that's the only complaint. The next song, "Book of Saturday," is not so great, but not bad, and really, no song on this album is bad, just only the title tracks are Really Great. "Book of Saturday" is just a generic ballad with no real parts that stand out. And no, the guitar that's backwards does not stand out.

     The album then goes into "Exiles," which is slightly overlong, but good. Then "Easy Money," which is the best of the 4 songs in the middle, comes on and is pretty good, but very similar to Pink Floyd's "Money." The last song of the middle songs is "The Talking Drums," which is really really intense, but a bit long. A bunch of guitar feedback signals the other best song, which is the second part of the title track. It's a three part epic song, that makes me want to just yell "RAWK!", but I don't, cause if I do, the neighbors will probably get mad. So I don't do that. Now, as a special bonus, here's me trying to type the lyrics of "Book of Saturday" in time with his singing:

"if i onyls contnmd r for get thie  gam eevety ynbruin trokr ny olyou e kajkfbghtn rsnvjayh mr t ne the po rpndmmmifeios and  js 5to al t y,me dunw. you c-kayn the bkacs oifd poband to foab viaketn thr eponbngbs n bt9ikm n mtheb b an jrkemn e kjkj gklkn   jb ay ikm mthen   m gnafn ylmjgbajke  nfsouuuunnnnnnnnnnddddddddd *backwards solo* *David Cross Crying About How Bad This Song Is Through A Violin!* oooooooooooooooo  dooodododoodododooododoododoodododoododoododododooododdoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo *More Crying* *Backwards* onnyj  tinteh th aspleppe on jni ll th4 onbgi cojbkshe oikosize jaksthbgrkuio krjjto flljen and oyesdyreretsay dtheyee  as duhbcm jrthjemm sids skjrngnedrtnsisimt thdebrma and oss the sanht dejannlasys ahair ajfbjajmaking swwrt xsixteen. ooooooooooooooo do yki mik ylin   book of sytauhtkd,atys nand i have o schoooseoo *Ppirf*"

I really like my cats

*Dedicated to Mark Prindle (The Jukebox FORK)

Starless And Bible Black- King Crimson

King Crimson- Starless and Bible Black (1973)

Rating: 12

"The Worthy Captain and His Squad of Troopers, Standing Fast"

Best Song: Fracture

Worst Song: Trio

     This has to be one of the most underrated albums I have ever reviewed. On every site I look at for reviews, it got 7/16, 4/10, 4/10, and 7/10. It's a really good album! Most people tend to talk about the fact that 5/8 songs are live, and that 4/5 of those are improvisations. But the King Crimson improvs are some of the best music they ever did. All of the improvisations (except for one) are great and it's really hard to believe they actually improvised on it. But let's do a track by track analysis.

     The album kicks off with a song called "The Great Deciever", which is a great song driven by an awesome electric violin line and an awesome bassline! The lyrics are funny, and the singing is top notch. The next song, "Lament," is not as good, but has two cool sections. The first one is quiet, but the second part is regular rockin' Crimson, lead by a cool bassline. The next song is the instrumental improv, "We'll Let You Know," which is the best improvisation on the album. Once again, the bass is amazing. And when the drum comes in... wow.

     The 4th song is called "The Night Watch," and it's pretty good, just a bit soft. The next song, "Trio," is waayyy too soft. It's frankly just a boring song. Then side one closes out with "The Mincer", which is really creepy, but is made even creepier by the random cutout. Then side 2 opens up with the final improvisation of the album, which is the title track. While it's not my favorite, its still pretty good!

      All of these songs however, do not compare to "Fracture," This is easily in my top 5 Crimson songs, and one of the greatest Heavy prog songs ever. It's 11 minutes, but not overlong in the slightest! The main guitar part is awesome, made awesome by the octave power of the guitar-bass playing the same thing. The violin's pretty great too! But wow, that bass. That amazing bass. John Wetton was a heck of a bass player.

     Overall, this album is vastly underrated, and if you don't have it, go pick it up as soon as possible!

Red- King Crimson

King Crimson- Red (1974)

Rating: 15

"Sundown/dazzling day/Gold through my eyes/But my eyes turned within/Only see"

Best Song: Starless

Worst Song: Fallen Angel

       Christmas morning. I opened up a moderately small present to reveal the 2012 5.1 edition of Larks Tongue's in Aspic and the 2009 5.1 edition of... this. Wow, where do I start? I've never been a fan of King Crimson. I only liked their first album. But then I saw the 5.1 remasters, and I decided to give them a try. I had already heard Larks Tongues in Aspic, and that had scared me half to death. But I had never heard Red.
       So I popped this baby into my DVD player and started it up. Immediately, I was hit by an amazing wall of distortion that was the title track. Everything in the mix was distorted even the bass. There were seemingly billions of Guitars yelling around me, and then there was a cello, and then the song ended. Needless to say, I was blown away, and decided nothing on the album could be better than that wall of noise.
       Sadly, when the next song, "Fallen Angel" came on, I thought it was great, but it really wasn't as good as the last. Then came on an absolutely amazing song called "One More Red Nightmare," This was even better than "Red," and had me wondering what could be better than that. "Providence," was pretty good, but not as good as the last song. It was no question, the weirdest, but I still really liked it.
       Then... "Starless" came on. If you haven't heard that song, drop absolutely everything you're doing and listen to it right now. That has to be one of the top 6 songs that I have ever heard. The pacing is fantastic, and I have absolutely zero complaints about it. It is the greatest heavy prog song of all time.
       Overall, this is an amazing album. Go out and buy it today!