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King Crimson - Larks' Tongues in Aspic CD (album) cover

LARKS' TONGUES IN ASPIC

King Crimson

 

Eclectic Prog

4.42 | 3247 ratings

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BobShort
4 stars After a couple albums of experimenting with airy jazz, King Crimson remember the joy out of ear splitting noise and brute force. Fripp surrounds himself with David Cross, who can make a viola sound like a bunch of carnivorous squirrels eating your kids, the meanest rhythm section on the planet (Bruford/Wetton), and a Jamie Muir who takes to percussion with a punkish ferocity. A band always keen on filler, they get it out of the way first on this disc with a couple minutes of pointless thumb piano viruosity. They then get down to business with an entire album which takes a jazz mindset to their garage prog thrashing. Once the first part of "Larks Tongues in Aspic" gains momentum, it takes voyages through blistering guitar workouts and a breezy viola solo before a creepy climax which sounds like aliens landing on the roof as you watch television. "Book of Saturdays" is a pretty and minimalistic pop tune which would sound at home in the repetoire of a modern twee pop band. "Exiles" is a stately and clumsy tune hearkening back to their earlier era. Bruford is relegated to be a little drummer boy and the track is only saved by some menacing mellotron interludes. "Easy Money" is a slinky and as glam as King Crimson can get, with a rhythm section that literally sounds like its walking through mud. The real meat of the album is in "The Talking Drum"/"Larks Tongues pt 2" in which the shrieking improvisation of the former gives way to a song so powerful in its mass that it violates the Geneva convention. How Wetton played that bassline with such power without dislocating anything is beyond me.
BobShort | 4/5 |

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