The King Crimson studio album poll

I really like Providence, I don't think, it's just "tuning"

thank you, thank you, thank you, dear kc thread! you've given me a fab new word -- itcockin'!

and as i'm 'ready here, might as well vote. as well.

done it. i'm all for starless. ('tleast today)

almost impossible to do one overall. i chose lark's because i'm boring but it could just as easily have been red, discipline, or beat

lizard

Wow, thanks for that youtube link up thread. Now I'm watching all these different performances. You could almost do a poll on which live version of Larks' Tongues in Aspic pt.2 is the best.

I finally picked up that McDonald and Giles album from 1971... damn, it's good.

Fracture vs Fractured vs FraKctured vs PhRacTuReD vs FhreacKctuKrceKcd

vs some thing about shaving chickens

Oh god, I appear to only have the wrong ones. In The Court, Poseidon, Lizard, Starless, Beat and Thrak. I have the odd comp too. I really like Poseidon even though it's "Court Pt 2" basically. "Lizard" I quite like too surprisingly.

Oh wait, no I have Islands and Lark's Tongues too. Well I never..

Poseidon is Court pt 2 for the whole of side A. Side B is Mars pt 2.

Gordon Haskell's balls-drop voice on Lizard wears thin after a while. His laughing at the end of the 'hey-ho' song is derisory and has a fascinating story attached to it, but I can't remember what it is.

I like the song "Lizard" a lot.

It has great progression and a well-rounded structure, and Jon Anderson's presence adds an extra dimension just by being there. The mad cacophonous battle phase goes off too.

What's wrong with "Providence"? It's the closest to AMM they ever got.

Providence ruins the flow of an otherwise powerful album, and really is just 8 minutes of people banging stuff.

I wrote one of the worst sentences of all time above, but what I was trying to say was that I think Providence is a great song.

Starless - buying it from a bargin bin in John Menzies, Kirkcaldy sometime in 1975 changed my life.

I'm not sure it's an arguable point that Starless is the best of the Wetton-era records by them. Larks' Tongues is clearly a bit too studio-polished and just about every live recording of those tracks is better than the studio recordings. Red, while wonderful, lacks that sense of frenzied "anything-could-happen-here" improvisation Starless has.

Don't get me wrong: they're ALL good and on some days, I'd prefer the tight, power trio of Red to any of the others -- and clearly "Red" and "Starless" are among the greatest achievements ever associated with KC.

But if you're talking about record filled with high points, from songs ("Great Deceiver") to improvisations ("We'll Let You Know") to demonic instrumentals ("Fracture") to off-the-cuff lyricism ("Trio"), Starless and Bible Black can't be beat.

I wrote one of the worst sentences of all time above, but what I was trying to say was that I think Providence is a great song.

-- Bill Magill, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 23:45 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

On your word I just listened to it again, for the first time in probably 10 years. You're absolutely right.

Perhaps I was confusing it with that extended jamming chunk on side B of ItCoCK.

And now 'Starless' (the track on Red) is getting me all excited. Is there a thread for irregular time signatures? I want to talk about irregular time signatures.

"Starless" is great. As opposed to the album it was named after, which is the worst of their 70s albums.

search: pop songs with weird time signatures and metric shifts

Mmmm, sweet 15/8

TS: "Fracture" vs. "Starless"

Thanks chaki.

Starless & Bible Black spends too much time noodling to be an enduring listen. 50% of it is fantastic though.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

The top 4 are all awesome.

The top 5 are all awesome. Who voted for THRAK? Discuss.

Other than "The Court Of The Crimson King", none of the Top 4 are among their best.

They never got better than on their first four albums, before those wild improvisations became too prominent.

Red! Orright.

For once my favourite of something matches popular opinion.

Thrak >>> Construkction of light

I've never heard Red & now I guess I have to. Surprised "Discipline" didn't get more votes.

In the Wake of Poseidon so much better than
The ConstruKction of Light (2000) 3
THRAK (1995) 2
Three of a Perfect Pair (1984); 2
Lizard (December 1970) 1
The Power to Believe (2003) 1

I've listened to "Discipline" a lot recently. God freakin DAMN, Belew has a wonderful voice. Both spoken word and singing, Matte Kudasai esp but I have a strange love for "Indiscipline" where he's reading out that letter from his wife about the sculpture she hates. Cant put my finger on it, but it really intrigues me.

I actually find the vocals on discipline to be a real stumbling block! if it were instrumental, I would prob love it. I think that's why I listen to don caballero's american don so much - no vox to distract me from concentrating on cool guitar loops. even if belew just never did his spoken word thing... I think that I would like it much more!

I don't think crimson ever really had a great singer, tho. at times, wetton's vox kinda grate on me as well. :-/

I like wetton's and belew's vox in king crimson

I like wetton better than belew, but I just like the 70s records much more than the 80s ones. there are some very cool things going happening on those 80s records, for sure. fripp's playing, especially. but the vox/production on them just really turn me off! bummer.

Sad that Islands got no votes. It's close to my favorite Crimson album.

I don't think crimson ever really had a great singer, tho. at times, wetton's vox kinda grate on me as well. :-/

Very much agree with this. Wetton had a good voice but he regularly sounded like he couldn't hit certain high notes on some songs (One More Red Nightmare comes to mind) and had some trouble regulating his breath on others (The Great Deceiver). Lake was a good singer with an amazing voice, but I don't really think of him as King Crimson. Belew... just ugh. I guess my vote goes for Wetton. Most of the time his rough edges worked well in contrast to the rest of the band imo.

if it were instrumental, I would prob love it.

this is true for me of all crimson. never liked the vocals, in any era. but the music's usually so good that I can just tune them out.

>>Sad that Islands got no votes. It's close to my favorite Crimson album.

Debut or controversial Islands choice for me.

-- Dan Peterson, Monday, October 22, 2007 9:53 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark Link

I almost chose it - it really is a beautiful record - but I've played the debut 10x more, so went with that. Don't currently own "Islands" and I need to rectify that.

beat deserved a vote. that was the first crimson album I ever bought. sometimes it's still my favorite of the three 80's albums too. i credit it for leading me into a lot of literature (which, uh, became cliched and hackneyed by the time I was in college but it was cool when I was just starting high school)

islands is also underrated and gets the shaft. it's far better than the last two albums (even the last three)

boz burrell was their best singer. earthbound!

belew's got a good voice but his intonation on the 80s albums makes me think of a 3rd rate david byrne impersonator.

1. Boz was their best singer?!

2. I am quite surprised the SBB placed third. I much prefer Larks' Tongues and have never managed to "get" anything on SBB, except maybe Great Deceiver for that crazy riff. And Discipline is a really solid album, even though I can never listen to it anymore (I usually pull out Beat if I want 80s Crim).

I hope I voted for Discipline in this poll. I think I did.

Spent a ton on time googling King Crimson info yesterday. Had no idea Islands drummer Ian Wallace had lived in Nashville, that he was such an in-demand session and touring guy in the post KC years, or that he passed away last year (as did Boz Burrell the year before.)

Has anyone heard the Crimson Jazz Trio CD Wallace did?

boz doesn't sound radically different or worse than lake or wetton to me. in fact he sounds a bit like a cross between the two. the worst was gordon haskell, he just hams it up too much on lizard

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In The Court Of The Covid King

happy 50th to red

beyond a treat to see BEAT perform "red" last night outside philly. it's astonishing that adrian belew is 74. what an amazing show