EXPOSURE

Robert FRIPP notes on "Exposure" that the album was "originally conceived as the third part of an MOR trilogy" -- his work on Peter GABRIELl's second album and Darryl Hall's "Sacred Songs" being the first two parts. "Exposure" is FRIPP's most commercially successful solo album, actually charting in the US and UK, but he clearly had second thoughts about pandering to commercial tastes before creating this. Drawn from some wildly divergent recording sessions between 1977 and 1979, this collection ranges from the soothing ambient sounds of FRIPP & ENO to some violent rock recorded with VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR's Peter HAMMILL.

In between are FRIPP's re-takes on songs that were recorded for the GABRIEL and Hall sessions, including the lovely "North Star" and "Here Comes the Flood". The intent of "Exposure", apparently, is to show off FRIPP's range as an artist, but it's presented in such a fractured format that the album's extremes often seem too extreme. Individually, many of the songs are terrific: the "Discipline"-era CRIMSON invoked early on "Breathless," Darryl Hall indulging in the strangeness of "You Burn Me Up I'm a Cigarette", a cleverly reconstructed version of "Exposure". But enjoying everything on "Exposure" is an impossible task -- there's simply no common thread that holds the songs together, and the very different vocalists tend to make or break the material.

Along with The League of Gentlemen, "Exposure" is a good place for curious KING CRIMSON fans to start in FRIPP's discography, as it comes closest to re-creating the frenetic arrangements and dark energy of that band. It remains a fine sampler of FRIPP's musical interests during his band's hibernation, but a cogent argument for MOR acceptance it ain't.