As I stated in my review for Wish You Were Here, I'm not a huge fan of most of the brittish progressive rock that I've heard throughout my life. They do stand out as the more interesting part of rock music from the 70's and 80's but most of the time I find them a bit too theatric, and I guess cheesy, for my own tastes.
There's definitely a couple of expections, and even if they are few, this album is one of those that I'd count amongst the ranks of brittish prog rock that makes me actually interested in the genre and curious for more.
I believe that for the most part of this record, King Crimson completely pulled of the aspect of theatrics in the genre aswell as combining it with a certain cohesiveness and almost narrative feel to the record that ties it all together in a nice little package and making up one of the best full albums that progressive rock has to offer, atleast seeing to the whole package containing album art, record pressing and more. It's a beast of a debut which quickly came to solidify King Crimson's role as one of the legends of the genre and is most likely the most notorious of the earliest conceptions of progressive rock.
The album kicks of with 21'st Century Schizoid Man, a classic in the genre and today also quite well known for being sampled by Kanye West on the album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, considered by many critics to be one of the greatest contender's for a modern classic. 21'st Century Schizoid Man is instrumentally not too far away from the first suite of Shine On You Crazy Diamond, borrowing influences from jazz (an idea that most likely originated with Soft Machine a couple years prior) with a bombastic trumpet solo sitting in the middle of the track, working as a segue between the grandiose interlude and the free ranging solo's that make up the closing part of the album.
21'st Century Schizoid Man opens the album on a high note, through robotic heavily filtered vocals over the clashing instruments, creating an almost futuristic feel to the music, as something foreign and almost science fiction-esque sets the atmosphere. It's an atmosphere that's hard to put words to but it's a feeling that stays throughout the record, holding a similar form all throughout Epitath, Moonchild and I Talk To The Wind.
Now the album unfortunately loses a bit of steam after the grandiose power house that is the opening track, slowing down it's pace on I Talk To The Wind and not quite finding its footing until the album reaches the closing point. I Talk To The Wind aswell as Moonchild both feel quite out of place on the record, slowing down the tempo and drawing the focus away from the already proven strong points of King Crimson. It's an issue of cohesiveness which I think hampers the record that could truly have benefited a bit more from a more homogenous focus and more constant flow of songs. While I Talk To The Wind atleast stands as a strong track on its own, the track Moonchild does not and only drags the quality of the record down even further.
The band tries to tie it all back together with the title track closing it off. The Court Of The Crimson King takes you back into a song that seems awfully similar to 21'st Century Schizoid Man both instrumentally and seeing to the atmosphere it's play. It's a nice trick that I wish had more of an effect but it kind of feels trite and unnecessary when the mid-section doesn't really add anything to the theme started on the opener.
In The Court Of The Crimson King often feels like it could have been so much more, had a narrative and concept found more of a grip in Fripp's vocals and the middle section of the album. It is a debut afterall and taking that into account, it still stands as a prog rock legend with the screaming red man remaining almost as much of an icon as the prism that graces The Dark Side Of The Moon.
Maybe I'm being a bit too harsh on this record but revisiting it has only let me down and left me with an even stronger bitter sweet taste regarding this record. Maybe it's one that just has lost its charm.
In The Court Of The Crimson King
King Crimson
6.5/10
Anton Öberg Sysojev
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