THE POWER TO BELIEVE

Heavy, bleak metal with repetitive and cliche chromatic guitar lines, my favorite 'progressive' band of all time, once known for its highly innovative and cutting edge music, finds itself now relegated to that dreaded pigeon hole called FORMULA. Much of the music here is substantially better construKcted than the earlier The ConstruKction of Light, but the music has really not moved forward. Mr. Fripp is held to higher expectations because we know he is capable of meeting and exceeding them. THE REAL QUESTION POSED BY THIS RECORDING AS WELL AS MUCH OF THE MATERIAL AFTER 1981's DISCIPLINE ALBUM IS: DOES ROBERT FRIPP STILL HAVE THE POWER TO BELIEVE IN HIS OWN ABILITY TO TRANSFORM THE MEDIUM?? Or, is creative stagnation the wave of Mr. Fripp's future? Simply because the craft is better than that found on The ConstruKction of Light, this recording rates 3 stars.