LIZARD

King Crimson´s third album Lizard shows a lot of progress from the two first albums that were kind of siblings and that´s even though Lizard was released in the same year as In the Wake of Poseidon. Gordon Haskell has taken over the vocal duties from Greg Lake who had by this time moved on to ELP. Gordon Haskell has also taken over the bass duties from Peter Giles. Drummer Michael Giles has been replaced by Andy McCulloch. The only member still in the lineup from In the Wake of Poseidon in addition to Robert Fripp is Mel Collins on flute and saxes. I think it can be heard in the music that new faces have been added to the lineup. The rythms are far more complex than on the two first albums and it seems like Robert Fripp has had oppertunity to play some things he has been longing for. Lizard seems very inspired in my ears.

The music is pretty symphonic even though there are traces of jazz and classical and avant garde music in the compositions. The closing epic is very symphonic and features a guest appearence by Jon Anderson of Yes on the first movement of that song called Prince Rupert awakes. Lots of mellotron is used throughout the album and of course Robert Fripp´s guitar is omnipresent. Gordon Haskell has a very similar voice to that of Greg Lake so no big changes in that department. Personally I never felt King Crimson had a really good vocalist ever, but that is just my opinion. Gordon Haskell is no exception, he has a pretty trivial and unremarkable voice IMO.

The production is excellent. Absolutely one of the best productions from that time. It´s produced by Robert Fripp and Peter Sinfield and that is even more remarkable. A real joy to listen to.

This is a landmark album in the history of prog rock just like King Crimson´s debut album, but as I have a hard time fully appreciating Gordon Haskell´s voice I can only rate this album 4 stars. It is really excellent though and if you like Gordon´s voice I´m sure you´ll like this better than me. Highly recommendable.