STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK

OK, this is one of those albums that many people will listen to and then back slowly out of the room maintaining eye contact. Personally I'm the guy in the background tearing away down the garden path screaming like a demented victim from an HP Lovecraft story.

On the plsu side, the opening track has the sort of sound that you think Aerosmith listened to and said; Hey if we play this a bit slower and rock ti up we're really on to something. We'll let you know grants us a little respite by being uite rhythmical and uplifting. The night watch is a genuinely touching ballad. Trio is hardly Lark Ascending but the violin is soothing and melodic. A world away from the prolific fiddle playing common in the prog folk genre.

However, I totally fail to get the second side if this album. Fracture is a welcome realease from the aimless jangling of the title track and you are lulled into a sense of thinking it is a pretty decent track, but then it's all about context.

A must for KC collectors. Definitely not my cup of tea but the middle tracks of the first side raise it up to 3 stars. Although in all honesty if it wasn't King Crimson I would surely give it 2.