IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING

Another album where much has been said, but I will put in my two cents anyways. King Crimson is one of my favorite bands for this reason: they always manage to create an album that puts exceptional skill and ideas together into a journey that no other band can take you on. This is the first, but not the best, of these albums. 21st Century Schizoid Man is the birth of a giant, and it is immediately evident in the middle section that Robert Fripp is an amazing guitarist. Michael Giles shows us his chops on this song, and makes us wonder why he left. Ian Macdonald is to Robert Fripp as Ian Underwood is to Frank Zappa: a collaborator and player of winds and keyboards who is second only to the bigger name in talent and creativity. He does some amazing sax work here, and his flute solo on I Talk to the Wind is beautiful. This song is a nice ballad, with some nice use of guitar harmonics and strumming, and a gorgeous vocal by Lake. Epitaph is defined as a legacy left behind by a person or person's, and this album would be the beginning of Crimson's Epitaph. The song has some great acoustic work and dramatic drumming by Giles, and the middle section with oboes and timpanis is incredible. With a killer vocal line, Lake tears at your eyes, pulling tears out of them with his words and emotion. Moonchild is nice, the jazzy, strange ending section isnt bad, but explores where Crimson would go in terms of improvising songs live. The title track is similar to Epitaph in its vocals and extensive use of mellotron. The lyrics are some of sinfeld's best, and they evoke images of a fantasy Court in which a Crimson King Rules.

Overall, a beautiful album, creating such a gorgeous, fertile sound as would never be matched again on a Crimson album. An amazing debut, maybe not the beginning of prog, but certainly one of the first albums of it.