IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

So where do you go after you have created not only one of the greatest progressive rock albums of all time, but the album that is considered to be the cornerstone of the entire genre? King Crimson had to answer that after the popularity of In the Court of the Crimson King. Their response? In the Wake of Poseidon, an album which can best be described as one-half original material and one half songs that sound a little too similar to their debut.

The album opens with Peace - A Beginning, which lures the listener into a calm with Greg Lake's hushed and distorted vocals. A nice little calm before the storm. Our next three songs are 21st Century Schizoid Man, I Talk to the Wind, and the eponymous title track. Oops. Sorry, I meant Pictures of a City, Cadence and Cascade, and the title track. Despite the quality of the songs, a comparison is unavoidable. POAC, like its predecessor is a heavy song with distorted vocals recounting apocalyptic lyrics and a jazzy/chaotic mid-section. While enjoyable (it's still King Crimson after all), it lacks the raw, savage energy which made 21CSM such a powerful piece. CAC differentiates from it's predecessor with quiet vocals and a dominance of both acoustic guitar and piano. At first I was willing to believe that comparison to ITTTW was overblown, but as soon as the flute came in, I realized that the comparison was not without fault. As for the title track, even though it sounds like a copy of the previous album's title track mixed with some influences from Epitaph, I would be lying if I said I didn't like the track. While the soaring mellotron, majestic lyrics, and Fripp's acoustics is something that has been done before, it's something I personally enjoy. In the Wake of Poseidon has it's own charm to it; similar, but something a little different.

Peace - A Theme is a nice little surprise where Fripp plays the vocal melody on his acoustic guitar. Now what about that original material I mentioned earlier? They finally make their appearance about 3/4th's of a way into the album. Cat Food is a humorous little number with fun jazz noodling layered throughout it and The Devil's Triangle starts off with King Crimson's rock interpretation of Gustav's Mars: Bring of War before becoming its own haunting and violent piece (Fun Fact: Due to the length of the song, I thought this was this album's answer to Moonchild, but thankfully I was completely wrong). Despite the power of these two songs, the album ends on a disappointing note with Peace - An End, a variation of the suite which lacks the ethereal quality of the first part or the beautiful melody of the second.

Now comes the difficult question of how to rate this album. While the album suffers from filler (The Peace Suite with the exception of "A Theme") and some blatant copying, it would be unfair to let that completely drag down the same album with Cat Food, the title track, and The Devil's Triangle, which are among 60's-70's Crimson's best output. Is it an excellent addition to any prog rock music collection or good, but non-essential?

I'll have to go with the latter, but a more accurate rating from me would be 3.5 stars.