LARKS' TONGUES IN ASPIC

Probably my favorite King Crimson album. A like this one for a number of reasons: 1) It has great experimentation, and a creative, positive and truly inspired atmosphere. There are a great variety of sounds and instruments throughout the album, including the wonderfully creative percussion of Jamie Muir. The band in my opinion truly reaches a high point here and the magic that is created here had not and would not find itself present to this degree on any other album of theirs. 2) It is very versatile. The album contains the great emotive, violin-, mellotron- and acoustic guitar-laden Exiles, the very experimental work of genius Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part I, its heavy but still experimental counterpart Part II, the nice ballad Book of Saturday, the buildup jam The Talking Drum, and the powerful, experimental jam-encapsulating Easy Money. 3) Every song on here is great. I can easily listen to this all the way through, as well as many times over and still enjoy and appreciate it. It is the Crimson album that has worn least on me, while Red has worn a lot. I appreciate Red, probably my 2, but it has grown somewhat tiresome for me, mainly because of the continuously heavy (and mostly only three-instrument) climate of the first three songs and their relatively simple song structure, as well as the imbalanced, inconsistent nature of the album. Tough call on some days though (Starless is great!).

All together, this is a magnificent and nearly essential album. Great stuff.