ISLANDS

A bit of a one-off album it appears, Islands is thoroughly enjoyable. Very mellow and soothing, Islands is a world apart from nearly every other King Crimson album saving Lizard, which I believe Islands completely improves upon. A few minor Mediterranean and Arabic influences can be heard during certain parts of the album, but these are usually passing moments which never really take hold of the music, but simply give it more depth and variety. The vocals are delightful, but are never captivating. They do produce a few memorable melodies, however.

The two longer songs, "Sailor's Tale" and "Islands," are vastly different and unique. "Sailor's Tale" is a jam that revolves around a simple bass and drum rhythm and a bossa nova beat. It takes many twists and turns, but the violin melody recurring every so often is quite moving. "Islands" is blissfully soft, with one of the few exceptional vocal melodies on Islands.

Of the shorter songs, "Formentera Lady" and "Prelude: Song of the Gulls" are the best. The first repeats the bass and drum rhythm from "Sailor's Tale" with basically the same kind of jam setup. The second is an expertly composed classical piece and is my personal favorite on Islands.

The other two tracks ("The Letters" and "Ladies of the Road") give me the impression that the band thought Islands was too monolithic and wanted to give it some variety. Ha! That could be, but surely they could have picked a better way to add variety than this!? "The Letters" starts off nice, but a sax or oboe or SOMETHING comes in and solos obnoxiously, ruining what could have been a decent song. "Ladies of the Road" is a mindless, annoying jam which sounds like a lesser- version of "Easy Money" towards the end.

These disappointing songs do hold Islands back from reaching 5 stars, but I'm not so sure I'd have the guts to give it 5 stars anyway. Islands is beautiful, soothing, with many pleasing moments. Yet it is a bit single-minded and never strays too far from its mellow course. Still, it is a very good at what it does.