King Crimson- In the Court of the Crimson King Review

Today, I will be looking at King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King, their debut album. Released in 1969, this album is considered by many the first ever progressive rock album. The members of the band at this time were:
Robert Fripp – guitar, also he is the mastermind behind King Crimson
Ian McDonald – flute, clarinet, saxophone, vibes, keyboards, mellotron, vocals
Greg Lake – bass guitar, lead vocals
Michael Giles – drums, percussion, vocals
Peter Sinfield – lyrics, illumination (he didn't play with the band, he just wrote their lyrics)

That's enough useless facts for now, its time to get to the actual music. It should be know that although the album has 5 long songs on it, but sub-sections of each song are given titles to ensure that the group would receive the full amount of song writing royalties from their music publisher and record company.

1. "21st Century Schizoid Man" (7:21)This is the exhilarating opener track of the album. It starts off with a little bit of quietness (and some strange sounding instrument), then suddenly explodes into a fuzzy, evil sounding riff. The saxophone that plays along with the guitar makes it sound jazzy in a way. When the vocals come in, they are distorted almost to the point of being unintelligable. Greg Lake gives a powerful vocal performance nonetheless that only adds to the edgy sound of the song. His lyrics are supposidly about vietnam, but it's abit difficult to hear them. This section continues for a short period of time (relative to king crimson) before making a dramatic transition from 4/4 time to 6/8. This is an instrumental portion of the song, which I usually am not fond of, but it proves to be as intense and interesting (if not more) as the first part of the song. Lake's bass really shines in this section, showcasing his incredible talent. In fact, all the musicians incredible talents are shown in this song. After a satisfying jam in 6/8, the band returns to 4/4 and to the opening section of the song. The song ends on a loud, discorrdant jam, and the listener is left breathless.

2. "I Talk to the Wind" (6:05)After a super heavy joyride like Schizoid Man, the first time listener would probably be expecting another song or two similar to it on the album. Strangly, there are no moreheavy songs on the album, which isn't neccisarrily that bad. This song is absolute gold, and in my opinion the second greatest on the album (the first being Schizoid Man ofcourse). It starts off with a beautiful flute melody, which I appreciate deeply because I play the flute. The verses are perfectly written, with lyrics that make you think andinstrumentation to give you chills. The chorus sounds incredily deep somehow, the concept of talking to the wind is slightly deppressing, but the music lifts you up. A flutesolo comes in after a while, and it never fails to blow me away. Anytime I am feeling either deppressed or just tired this is a likely song for me to listen to.

3. Epitaph (8:47)Ok, they took a little break from the madness and showed their emotion side, now they're gonna blow me away with a monster rocker again, right? This is what I was thinking thefirst time I listened to this album. Boy was I wrong! Not that it's a bad thing though, this song is just as amazing as the last two. A deep drum roll intro quickly leads intoa mellotron heavy melody, which I am very fond of. The verse comes in and creates the perfect atmosphere of wonder, and that slight sadness that king crimson does so well. Thechorus is equally atmospheric, creating a slight soft/loud dynamic in the song. The lyrics are quite deep once again, seeming to descibe a vision. The instrumental parts of the song are also very well exectuted, and I am never bored with them.This song is generally considered the second best, but I'd actually put it a little lower than that (4th to be exact). To sum it up, it's beautiful and atmospheric and once again leaves the listener in a sense of wonder.

4. Moonchild (12:13)In the words on cliche pop star Hannah Montana, nobody's perfect. This is of course true with King Crimson, shown by some of their later albums, but who would've thought itwould apply to one of the most perfect albums of all time (in my and many other people's opinion). This song starts off as another beautiful KC ballad, the mellotron and guitarmixing to create yet another sad atmospheric number. The lyrics are about a moonchild (obviously) and paint a perfect picture in your head. The chorus is also good, not amazingreally but good nonetheless. This continues for two and a half minutes or so, then the song goes to hell. I'm a fan of KC's jams most of the time, but this is not a jam. This isthe sound of a progressive rock band noodling in the studio, completely separate from eachother, trying to write something but failing miserably. The next nine minutes or so could've easily been condensed into two or three minutes, then the real song could've come back in. Instead, I guess they didn't feel like it, or wanted to see how much they could piss off their fans. This is the one flawed song on the album, but 4 out of 5 is pretty good still. Give this song a shot though, maybe the nothingness will appeal to you.

5. The Court of the Crimson King (9:25)There is one word to describe this song: epic. This is another completely perfect song in my opinion, with perfect dynamics, the quite acoustic guitar verses shift to loudchorus that team with energy. The backing vocals on the chorus are also very good. After a few verse/chorus repitition, the song switches to a little instumental bridge led by the mellotron then goes back to the chorus again. Another flute solo brings me absolute delight every time I hear it. The song repeats the verse and chorus a lot but it doesn't bother me at allbecause it's so great to hear even after the ten thousandth time. The song seems to end on a day in the life sounding chord, but soon a mellotron version of the melody comesin alone, then gets loud again for an instrumental version of the chorus (just no backing vocals). This could be considered the coda of the entire album because it just brings it full circle, waiting through all that stupid noodling in moonchild has payed off. The album ends on a sound that can only be described as everyone dropping their instruments.

The thing that makes this the best King Crimson album is the heavy use of vocals. Don't get me wrong , I love Larks' Tounges In Aspic, but some of their music is just ridiculoudly boring (I realize I will probably be scorned by all KC fans for that comment). To me there's a fine line between atmospheric and just plain tedious. If you want an introductionto not only King Crimson, but to prog rock in general, this album is the first thing anyone should pick up. It has only two flaws: It is a little too short, which isn't really a huge problem. At the end of the album I'm always left wishing for more. The other problem is the terribly dull section of moonchild. This album gets a 9/10; listen to it.