BEAT

Crimson toured around their Discipline album, but hadn't written enough tunes for a full album by the time they entered the studio to record Beat. So, they wrote tunes in the studio, including some improvisations. The result is more mixed than Discipline, which is excellent all the way through. On Beat, it is Adrian Belew's song-writing skills the save the day. He is the one who essentially wrote the excellent hit single, Heartbeat, one of the only Crimson tunes to ever cross-over into the radio-friendly pop world. It is Belew's excellent vocals and lyrics that make 'Waiting Man', 'Neal and Jack and Me', 'Nerotica' and 'The Howler' worth repeated listens. And Belew's 'Two Hands' is simply beautiful music. The improvs, and contributions of the rest of the band, meanwhile, stand in the shadow of Belew's contributions. 'Sartori in Tangier', and improv, is the weakest track on the album, while 'Requiem' is better but still not at the same level as Belew's wonderful tunes. Even with the improvs, this is one of the shortest Crimson albums. Clearly, this one was too rushed - the band should have taken their time to come up with the tunes that would follow-up Discipline. Because Belew is the one to step up to save the album, this sounds more like an Adrian Belew album, or 'Adrian Belew's Crimson', or something. There is nothing quite as good as 'Indiscipline' or 'Discipline' here. Instead, this album shows Adrian Belew as the most creative force in this version of the band at this time. I give this album 8.2 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which translates to 4 PA stars.

Share this KING CRIMSON review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Walkscore
• Report this review (#1696034)
• Buy KING CRIMSON music online with PA partners
• Show all KING CRIMSON MP3/Stream
• Go to KING CRIMSON page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Beat page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for KING CRIMSON related discussions