IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

King Crimson had one of the most difficult tasks any band had dealt with, making a more innovative album than In the Court of the Crimson King!! Well KC obviously didn't make it and not even close, I would like to call this album In the Court of the Crimson King Part 2, definitely because of a very similar climax in the songs, as well as similar riffs and instrumental passage. Besides the negative points, I'm able to save this album from it's doom, saying whole-heartedly that this album is much well crafted and elaborated than Court, with a cleaner sound to the songs with a jazzy feel to it, which in the following album, Lizard, it would be highly acomplished this ''jazzy feel''.

Now to the songs review, which I will divide as the following:

Mellotron Attacks: The title track is of them, with a lot of depressing and beautiful, at the same time, mellotron, creating the whole climax in which can be described by the 2 adjectives I used to describe the mellotron. The song's composition is one of the finest in the album, with a very good vocal delivery by Greg Lake, soon to join ELP, in which his style suits perfectly, with a lot of emotion in each word, as well as giving the complete view of the song's climax and route in which will follow, which is clearly the depression and beauty.

The other song with excessive mellotron is The Devil's Triangle, with it's haunting mellotron and marching based drumming. The Devil's Triangle is definitely the Devil's song, the first 7 minutes scares you like hell, with a very evilish transcendence lead by this terrifying and depressing mellotron. While the final minutes of the song, shows somber dissonance and madness, which is expected from bands like King Crimson or Van Der Graaf Generator. Too dissonant and scary for my like, though it's a very well welcomed song by the normal KC fan.

You want peace and tranquility?, you got it: Peace gives you, well..., peace. Soft pieces written by Robert and Peter; A Beginning(part 1) consists of a quite, though a bit somber, intro with Greg's semi-depressing voice; A Theme(part 2) consists of Robert's solo spot on the acoustic guitar, just think of Horizons by Genesism, quite gorgeous; An End(part 3) consists of part 1 and part 2, connected, somber and gorgeous, a reliable ending, though it could have been much better.

Then there's also Cadence and Cascade, similar to the acoustic spot of Peace: A Theme, though more sophisticated and beautiful, with Mel's sweet flute just taken out from mother-earth, plus some nicely done piano melodies and chords and Gordon's low gentle voice giving the final ingredient to this wonderful song, definitely one of the best song from the album, IMO.

Got bored? well you have 2 tunes that will cheer you up: primarly Cat Food, a very well achieved dissonant semi-pop song. It's catchy even with it's dissonant piano, which creates a kind-of ''complex'' climax, though it really is quite simple(compared to other stuff KC has made), with chorus, 10 second guitar solo and all. Though, for those who think it'll be pop-crap, then I'll have to say it's not, maybe not KC standard shear- genius, but it stands as proof that Robert can write some very enjoyable and with a complex feel kind of pop song.

The only song left is Pictures of a City(aka 21st Century Schizoid Man Part 2).A Heavy Avant-Prog song, as 21st Century Schizoid Man. This one clicks my attention a bit further than the one mentoned before, maybe because the more jazzy saxophone intro, rather than the classic heavy intro of the other. This one moves to complex rock spaces, rather than a complex symphonic one, as well as going through almost spacey territories with Robert's guitar echoing, as well as a reliable bass rythm, in which will speed-up and power- up with Robert's guitar and Michael's drums till the reprise of the blasting intro.

To conclude I'll have to say is that In the Wake of Poseidon stands at par with In the Court of the Crimson King on the composition/song-writing aspects, while in the innovative side, ITWOP fails. Yet, the tag ''innovative'' is actually a ''bonus'' on music, reffering myself to nothing really essential to the music, though I admit if the album carries this ''bonus'' then good for it, yet I have to conclude in which if ITCOTCK is rated high just for it's groundbreakingness, isn't inovativeness useless without good songs? Well if you do consider the songs good and rate the album high for it being good as well as adding 1 extra star for it's innovation, then why not consider the music in this album at the par? Does the tag ''Groundbreaking'' adds 2 or even 3 more stars to your rating? I wouldn't think so, still that stands in eachs own.

To make it brief: If you like Court for it's music, you should definitely like this, a bit less or a bit more, but at least like it. If you're expecting some new ideas from king Crimson, then I suggest you to skip this and go with Lizard and then to Lark's Tongue in Aspic, in which both you'll find some very innovative ideas, though completely different to their debut in style.

A well equilibrated album, with soft spots and heavy complex ones, which makes this album classic KC. Very good addition to your Prog Collection.

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