Red: King Crimson

The first time I ever heard Red, it shattered whatever expectations I had of it beforehand. It packed a whole lot of power, especially in Starless. SaBB was much more of an acquired taste, but it's still very interesting. Red is certainly better, though.

I'd call it an equal to SaBB. I didn't like Red as much at first, though.

LTIA > Red > SAAB

all essential albums but that's my preference.

I like Red better myself,in fact Red is my favorite KC album,followed closely by SABB

Red is probably my favorite of that era. A stunner. Wetton was the man back then!

HolyMoly wrote: LTIA > Red > SAAB .

Red, as Ivan and Hugues noted in their reviews, actually has a nostalgic, throwback quality, sort of tying up the Wetton-KC, which Fripp himself later opined had perhaps gone too far in the direction of experimentation, with the more organised and melodic ITCOTCK phase.  This is particularly evident on Starless with its mournful mellotron.  For that reason, its's my favourite of the trio.  It is imo a culmination of the Wetton KC philosophy, finally contextualising their brilliant experiments in earlier albums into a more structured set of compositions.  Having said that, I like LTIA almost as much.  SABB is the one I am not so fond of. 

Edited by rogerthat - January 17 2015 at 22:11

I do like this album a lot. However, my very favourite song, Starless, I much prefer live, since that is the way I first heard it, and for me the main melody is made to be played with a violin. My second favourite song, Red, I much prefer on later live versions by the double trio line-up. And Providence, I'm afraid I just can't get into that one... improvs are just not my thing. As how I rate it compared to SaBB, well, I haven't heard that album, so it's difficult to tell, but I think I have heard almost every song from that album on other live albums (except for the title track)... and since that album was largely constructed from live recordings anyway, well, I guess I could say I almost have the whole album... in parts. However, most of those songs I have heard didn't do much for me, except for Fracture, which I do enjoy.

Best album of King Crimson for me. Every songs are perfect except Providence. I find it a little bit boring. But Starless is one of the greatest songs of all time.

Hi,

Edited by moshkito - January 19 2015 at 09:37