IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING

If you consider yourself a prog fan you have to have this album. That doesn't mean that it's one of the best, but its historical place is unarguable. So in one sense it's essential, but if I were to grade it on its music alone, I would give a simple good rating of 3 stars.

For all the claims of this being the originator of prog, King Crimson borrow alot of their sound from the Moody Blues. Classically influenced, organ / mellotron dominated, ethereal atmospheres, all of these signature elements were well established by the Moodies quite awhile before this album emerged. 21st Century Schizoid Man's riffing certainly establishes a heavy psychedelia that upped the ante at the time, but it was but one step in a long line of great headbangers. The rest of the album really is the airy post-Moody material I mentioned before. The sound has never wowed me, never seemed truly challenging or ever all that innovative. Probably so many have borrowed from the album, and the sounds are so overused, that the once original sound long ago has become the norm. (Similarly, I remember Pearl Jam's Ten sounding original at one point. Now, it's a good album, but hardly unique or challenging) At the same time, however, if you go back and listened to classics like the Beatles' Rubber Soul, Yes' Close to the Edge, or Led Zeppelin IV, they still come across as amazing pieces of work. Certainly those albums have been borrowed from extensively as well, but their power still dazzles.

ITCOTK is, to me, a good album more valuable for it's place in history than for music that still inspires me. It's great to have in the library, but it's not an album I listen to all that often. (Though later KC does have a place in the rotation.)