EXPOSURE

This is easily the best of Fripp's solo works, and by far the most King Crimson like. One reason it is so good is that Fripp has restrained his use of Frippertronics to background washes and short interludes. A wise choice.

Some nice high points here are Breathless which sounds like a logical step after the amazing Red album. The drumming on this track is incredible (I have drummer friends that insist that Narada Michael Walden played on that song), and Tony Levin's bass just growls. Disengage has Peter Hammill's vocals perfectly matching Fripp's ferociously angry guitar.

The album then gives the listener a rest, with the peaceful North Star, then begins to ramp back up with Hammill's creepy voice on Chicago. The album then goes back into high gear for NY3, a roller coaster ride of a song, with snippets from a fierce argument dropped in to strenghten the effect.

The second half of the album is good, but not as strong as the first half, with the only great track being I May Not Have Had Enough of Me But I've Had Enough of You. The two songs that also appear on Peter Gabriel albums, Exposure and Here Comes The Flood are better here than on the PG albums, but not much better. And it's interesting to note how far ahead of the curve Fripp was, talking about what has now been termed "global warming", back in the seventies.

I wore out 2 copies of this album on LP, but somehow I can't quite get over the alternate vocals used on the CD release.

4.5 stars.