THE COMPACT KING CRIMSON

In the absence at the time of "In the Court of the Crimson king", which had yet to be released on CD, I bought this album because it contains no less than four of the five tracks on that album. The only one missing is "Moonchild" , which to me was no great loss.

The excellence of these four tracks ("Schizoid man", "In the Court..", "Epitaph" and "I talk to the Wind",) made the purchase entirely worthwhile, which was just as well, as the remaining tracks which were included are considerably less inspired. A couple of tracks ("Red" and "Cat food") which were included on the double LP version were dropped through the desire to work within a single compact disc.

The other tracks are taken from three albums released in the early 1980's, which at the time of the release of this compilation, were King Crimson's latest albums. "Discipline" supplies the bulk of the tracks, five in total, while "Three of a perfect pair" and "Beat" supply a mere three between them. These (at the time) recent tracks sit uneasily with the four classics mentioned above, bearing little musical relationship with them. While the "ITCOTCK" tracks are classic prog rock, with tight playing, strong melodies, and classic prog structures, the remaining tracks lean much more towards jazz and/or fusion.

Fortunately, the compilers chose to locate the ITCOTCK tracks together, although a chronological track listing placing them at the start would have been preferable. In view of the fact that King Crimsons magnificent first album is now available in all it's glory on CD, this compilation is somewhat superfluous.

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