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

LARKS' TONGUES IN ASPIC

King Crimson

 

Eclectic Prog

4.42 | 3250 ratings

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Nuke
5 stars King Crimson finally matches their debut with this sort of quirky avant garde masterpiece. The album is a bit unusual, and takes some getting used to. First, the music needs to be played loud. It has attitude, and plus the volume brings out the subtleties. Such as the dual drumming between Bruford and Muir. Bruford is mostly the set man, and muir is mostly the auxillary man, but muir is sometimes on a set too. The first track is full of brilliant riffs, melodies, grooves, and whatnot, which are are related in theme, but aren't tied together very cohesively, resulting in what sounds like an inhumanly good improv, but is actually almost all composed. The violen in this album is very tasteful, going from sweet to violent with the music. Fripp sounds better then he ever had previously to this point, with the loose nature of the music giving his extraordinary creativity a chance to shine. Bill Bruford infamously left Yes to join this band on this album, pissing off a good deal of yes fans. However, Bill accomplishes a lot more with king crimson in the future then he ever did with yes, and besides, King crimson is better ;). Jamie Muir is absolutly nuts on this album, in a good way. His creativity is unmatched on this album. This album is missing one element: Peter Sinfield. The lyrics as is are not as great, but are still very good.

Book of Saturday is a beautiful balled, possibly their prettiest balled yet. Exiles is interesting in that it begins with noise, and then transitions into a song, which fades from the various sounds that the band somehow makes. When it comes in full blast, it is very pretty. This song reminds me a bit of the islands album. It features a nice crescendo in it, similar to epitaph, but different in its resolution. Easy money is most memorable to me for it's starting riff, which is delightfully sassy. The whole concept of the song is a huge crescendo, but not before Jamie Muir has a lot of fun with his percussion. It is such a fun song, really. Like ladies of the road, it playfully describes a rock star life style in an over the top style. I love the laugh at the end. The next song is a sort of loose adaptation of the Mars/devils triangle they had performed earlier. This track has an identical structure to mars, and a similar feel, but completly different instrumentation. It features, as you might guess, a talking drum. The drum gets overpowered though. It is very creepy in a way, and is one of my favorite king crimson songs ever. It builds up slowley, with a violen solo over dark music. The song Reflection by tool is very similar to this song in the beginning. This song keeps building up though, with violen and guitar both soloing over a menacing build up of bass, drums, and muir. It keeps building up until it explodes in fireworks. The song is essentially a musical version of an orgasm. Then it segues into the final track, which is heavy metal through and through. It has a rough tribal feel to it, and a sort of driving riff. It is the classic I--I--I-I- -I--I-I--I--I- rhythm which dominates here. The drums are awesome, with muirs clattering stuff at the end really making it drive forward.

This album is absolutly essential to anyone who loves good music.

Nuke | 5/5 |

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