THE COLLECTABLE KING CRIMSON - VOL. 2 (LIVE IN BATH, 1981 + LIVE IN PHILADELPHIA, 1982)

I have a few problems with this recording.

First, this incarnation of King Crimson is the worst of all groupings. It isn't completely without merit, but Bill Bruford, who has stated that he occasionally rejoins King Crimson and Yes to pay for his solo projects, seems to be going through the motions, and the guitar parts mostly sound like practise exersizes layered over each other. Only Tony Levin consistantly plays interesting licks from song to song.

The two recordings, their first in this grouping, and the second, played during the Beat tour, shows one of the shortcomings of the band. They seems to play all of the songs almost exactly the same way from tour to tour.

And third, whoever judged the sound quality on the recordings was listening through rose colored headphones. The Live In Bath is listed as "fair", but sounds quite muffled throughout, and the Live in Philadelphie disk is listed as Excellent, but with the distortion, clipping, and other flaws, should not be rated thus.

There are better recordings of this band out there, making this, except for the historical importance of their first gig, superfluous.

This Collectable package consists of two early concerts of the Crimson 81-84 line-up. The early 81 concert has a very poor recording quality and isn't much more then a collectors item. The 82 concert is perfectly enjoyable but it is overshadowed by the more lavish 2CD Absent Lovers, a concert release from 84 with a more complete setlist.

I find the first CD to be entirely unlistenable. It's an audience recording that doesn't come off better then any random bootleg. The only reason this concert was released at all is because it was the first gig ever by this line-up. Frankly I could perfectly do without it and I'm very happy our public library employs a dedicated Crimson fan who collects all these releases! 1star

CD2 is from the Beat tour and sounds just perfect. Only, since Three of a Perfect Pair wasn't released yet, the setlist isn't the strongest imaginable, and everything is played very truthful to the original studio versions. Only two tracks are slightly extended, namely The Sheltering Sky and Indiscipline. That last one got an extra drum solo at the start, more talking from Belew in the middle and a really explosive finale. Lark's Tongues II is an obvious highlight but can't rival with the 74 USA version. Good concert overall. 3stars

When it comes to the 81-84 period, there's only one King Crimson live album you really need and that's Absent Lovers. This line-up didn't improvise much and unless you're a collector, you won't need this Collectible Vol2.