ISLANDS

Hey all in prog land, time for yet another prog review. What's on tap to review? Well, as you can see from your screen, it is none other than "Islands" by the great Crimson King. Some of the background to it, it is the fourth studio album, released in 1971 and once again new musicians came in (musicians have come and gone out of King Crimson so much that it is hard to pinpoint who is who on an album lol). Most notably, the following happened: Gordon Haskell was replaced by Boz Burrell (he actually played bass for Bad Company for a bit I believe) and Andy McCulloch was replaced by Ian Wallace on the drums. Any ideas as to why this happened?? Well, Haskell and McCulloch did not really like the previous album (Lizard) so they jumped ship. Fripp had to find new people to play in his band. Boz Burrell and Ian Wallace were up for the task so they joined the band. Enough of the background huh? On to the review of Islands by King Crimson.

1) Formentera Lady - An interesting way to start the album. It has some really good bits but I feel this could have been done a lot better. The lady's singing at the end of the piece is so cringe worthy that it makes it rather unlistenable for me (maybe it was intended to be that way??). I don't really like the ending at all. 7/10

2) Sailor's Tale - This is the best thing on the albumn both from an artistic and experimental perspective. It's quite interesting, this is experimentation done right (Fripp's guitar work is rather insane on here, unlike anything I have heard). 10/10

3) The Letters - Unfortunately this one does not really do much for me. It's a rather forgettable track. Was Burrell trying to imitate Peter Hamill here?? 6/10

4) Ladies of the Road - This one sounds very much like the Beatles to me (whatever happened to King Crimson doing things out of left field??) but unlike the Beatles it's really not that good. The lyrics are absolute trash ("I smiled and just unzipped her? Wtf??")and so is the music. It makes me cringe. "Ladies of the roadd"(cringes). Uggh, disgusting. 2/10

5) Prelude: Song of the Gulls - This classical inspired piece is ok but I feel it just doesn't belong on the album. It feels out of place. 7/10

6) Islands - This one is actually a pretty darn good jazzy piece with some straight lush. Only one complaint, I could do without the ending. I hate it when bands let the recording continue when they are done playing (it's rather annoying). 8/10

Overall, Islands by King Crimson is yet another decent album with some forgettable (The Letters), some atrocious (Ladies of the Road) and some fluff (Song of the Gulls). it's not as experimental as Lizard but it's also not as messy as that one. Yet another album by the great Crimson King that is just ok for me ( ayy, that's 4 albums in a row). Yet another 3 stars! Peace out!

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