Tracklist: Red Fallen angel One more red nightmare Providence Starless

Band members: John Wetton - Vocals, Bass guitar Robert Fripp - Guitars, Mellotron Bill Bruford - Drums

Rating:
The last of the "73-74" Crimson albums, as the other two ("Larks' tongues in aspic", "Starless and bible black") this one leans more towards rock, although very progressive such, than the direction they took on "Lizard" (haven't heard "Islands", the 4th album yet), and then I mean that this album is mostly based on recognisable guitar riffs ("Red", "One more red nightmare") but they do tend to break out into weird Fripp specialities though (wouldn't be a Crimson album without those :) ). One of the most solid line-ups here: Wetton is not only a great singer, just like the singers on the first 3 albums he also masters his bass guitar like few others. And Fripp well.. that name speaks for itself don't you think? Bruford, ex-Yes drummer, also one of the tightest musicians in his genre around this time.
Almost only wonderful tracks here; "Red" is based on this brilliant riff which sticks in your mind once heard it, "Fallen angel" is great ballad, "One more red nightmare" is another great riff-based song, and "Starless" is one of their better ballads, however it has a very long instrumental part of the kind that only Fripp is capable of, so it's not "only" a ballad. Though it should've been called "Starless and bible black" since those are the words in the chorus, but unfortunately they already did an album and a title track on that one with that very name, earlier the same year as "Red". The song I would like to keep out of this one is "Providence" which is an instrumental experimental thing, ok usually I like Fripp's weird stuff but this one doesn't do anything for me. At least not the beginning of it, maybe cause it's not very much guitar there, mostly strange violin sounds and that sorta things, although when they actually begin the real playing in the song, guitar/bass/drums, THEN we're talking musical talent. So I'd just like to remove a couple of minutes from track 4, otherwise this is a very solid piece of work, buy it if you like King Crimson.







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