EXPOSURE

For those looking to get this album expecting some long lost King Crimson opus or a prog rock gem, bear in mind that "Exposure" does not say "King Crimson" on the cover - it is a wholly Robert Fripp album through and through. And as such, it deviates quite far King Crimson's early output.

The album has a superstar guest line-up, which I feel no need to list, and each of the guest musicians offers their own flavour from time to time but overall "Exposure" is not a musical project so much as an intellectual exercise by Fripp. Much of the material is unconventional to say the least, with hard rock riffs being overlaid by cryptic, looped-and-layered dialogue and it is quite evident that the album's purpose isn't to wow with musicianship, but to convey Fripp's philosophical developments. The one exception is "Here Comes The Flood", a wonderful ballad with Peter Gabriel taking lead vocals.

Overall this is an album that will appeal very strongly to Robert Fripp fans. It has plenty of raucous but intelligent thought-based pieces and its fair share of Frippertronics. But to a listener who doesn't care to get better insight into the mind of the artist, there isn't much going for it.