NIGHT AFTER NIGHT

This posthumous live album from the fallen supergroup was recorded in Japan, which in retrospect makes perfect sense, as the music showed John Wetton well on his way toward the chart-topping entropy of ASIA.

On stage, in front of an adoring crowd, the trio was admirably tight and professional, but I hear no passion whatsoever for the music being played. A moot point, since there isn't any, even in the two new songs: the lively but mechanical title track (by default one of the better selections here), and the entirely too banal "As Long As You Want Me Here", a transparent bid for a slice of the singles market. The latter actually fades out over the final chorus (in a live concert?), anticipating a radio edit that never materialized.

Fans might be curious to hear how the trio sounded playing material from the original quartet...not very different, as it turns out. And Eddie Jobson's lightning synth runs are no substitute for Allan Holdsworth's guitar. Also: what's up with all the obviously pre-recorded background harmonies? Was John Wetton cloned in a secret Honshu lab before the tour? And are there other unfair overdubs hidden in the mix?

In the end the album succeeds in showing how much Wetton had forgotten from his years in KING CRIMSON, a band that rarely failed to honor the integrity of a live performance (except, ironically, when Jobson himself was drafted to 'fix' some violin parts on the "USA" tapes). If this was where the bass player saw his career heading at the end of the 1970s, Fripp was wise to kill the Crimson King when he did.