ABSENT LOVERS - LIVE IN MONTREAL, 1984

By the time they played the concert presented as Absent Lovers: Live in Montreal 1984, King Crimson had recorded ten albums. But with just two exceptions across eighteen songs and nearly two hours, the band sticks with material from their most recent three LPs, Discipline (1981), Beat (1982), and Three of a Perfect Pair (1984).

After their entrance number the band segues into the proto-math-rock of "Lark's Tongue in Aspic, part III." By following this with "Thela Hun Ginjeet," the band states its independence from its 1970s work. Nonetheless, they perform the title track from their 1974 set, Red - - albeit in the fashion of the 1980s edition of the band.

I'm not the first to claim that this rendition of "Red" is superior to the original, and actually this can be said of many of the tracks. Unfortunately, "superior to the original" doesn't necessarily mean "enjoyable." The version of "Industry" here, for example, is just as repetitious as the original from Three of a Perfect Pair. After "Industry" finally ends, one of the musicians, probably singer-guitarist Adrian Belew, asks the crowd if they're ready for more. They are, and it's on to "Dig Me," the next song on the experimental "right side" of Three of a Perfect Pair. Neither "Industry" nor "Dig Me" translate very well onto the stage. But having played eleven minutes of the "right side," the band launches into their best 1980s song, "Three of a Perfect Pair."

And soon enough they're playing most of their other well-known songs from the era, including "Man with an Open Heart" and "Sleepless" from Three of a Perfect Pair, "Frame by Frame" and "Heartbeat" from Beat, and "Matte Kudasai" and "Discipline" from Discipline. Besides "Red," the other "legacy" song they play is "Lark's Tongue in Aspic, part II," another rendition at least equal to the studio version.

In short, Absent Lovers: Live in Montreal 1984 is a very good album, with excellent performances, good song selection, and decent sound. Other reviewers have suggested that Absent Lovers: Live in Montreal 1984 is all most fans will need of 1980s King Crimson. While I don't quite agree, I would certainly say that this album is better than any one of the band's three studio albums from this period.