SIDE ONE

This solid album by the second longest member of the legendary Crimson is on the more normal side of experimental. About half of the album is interesting, electric rockers. The other half is full of cool musical experiments. The former (Ampersand, Writing on the Wall, Walk Around the World, Beat Box Guitar) are sometimes simple, sometimes more complex and out-there, but always layered. The lyrics are most of the time just strange and funny, but from time to time very interesting ("even reality is mostly in your mind"). The more experimental tracks (Matchless Man, Madness, Under the Radar, Elephants, Pause) are very diverse and always captivating. Madness has several guitar lines running along side each other - works brilliantly for a chaotic and dissonant effect (the aim for this song). Elephants (a re-occuring theme with Belew) is very simple, but quite nicely layered, and even a bit funny. The album ends nicely with Pause, an odd piece with some classical touches.