IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING

I'm not really a great fan of KING CRIMSON. I own some of their albums but their music has never really connected with me. Their music leaves me cold. But even I can't deny that this album, "In the Court of the Crimson King", is an absolute masterpiece, and my only perfect experience with the band (the man).

From the beginning, with "21st Century Schizoid Man", the album is a constant delight of fantastic music. This dark, menacing track is followed by a really beautiful tune, "I Talk to the Wind", which almost takes us to a bucolic, pastoral scene, but one that is a little bit darker than what it looks like. Fripp and his bandmates could do melody, after all. Then we have another brilliant success: "Epitaph", a longer, slow song, with an epic feel to it, that reeks of 60s-70s magic, with a fantastic vocal performance. "Moonchild" is the reason many people either love or hate this record (around here we'll find more of the first ones, though). After a rather melodic start, we have about 8 minutes of pure sychedelic improvisation -or it it really-? Everything is just little details: few notes and chords here and there, dissonances, drum fills that are short and barely noticeable, a rock band ahead of its times, in a word. Finally, probably the best track in the album after "Epitaph" is the title-track, which follows directly and blends perfectly with "Moonchild". Another long epic, the chorus is just magnificent. A reaffirmation of the majestic, arrogant (in the best of ways) music we just have heard.

The musicianship is amazing, the flow of the album is perfect, with a symphonic feel to it. A perfect masterpiece that's considered the first proper progressive rock album, and that deserves all its accolades not because is the first, but because it's one of the very best. Anything lower than 5 stars is just unthinkable for me.