03/19/12: King Crimson - Red (1974)

03/19/12: King Crimson - Red (1974)

1. Red
2. Fallen Angel
3. One More Red Nightmare
4. Providence
5. Starless

     I have listened to a decent amount of King Crimson in my life. I always knew that their music has been fairly all over the place throughout their career but I had never really done my research on why that is. Robert Fripp has been the one constant throughout this bands MANY incarnations and thats the fact I didn't realize; They have had a lot of different lineups throughout the years, have disbanded on many ocassions and keep coming back again. I have heard stuff from their very early career and stuff from their later incarnations in the 80's and 90's and I enjoyed it all in some way or another, but I can't think of a band that has been as amorphous and drastically changing as King Crimson has proven to be. Now, here's the thing. The one time period of albums I had never heard anything from is their third lineup that exsisted from 1972 until their first official breakup in 1974 and this album "Red" is the last with this lineup before they broke up (for nearly 7 years). It ends up, I have a couple more King Crimson albums to purchase because "Red" is by far the most blown away I've been by any of their albums. Fucking spectacular.
     Of the albums I can say I've actually listened to, this was their most rockin' album up to that point in their career. Its at its core a progressive rock album but it had much heavier moments than i would have expected from the genre at that time. There are the usual additional instruments on the album like brass, woodwinds and violin and it adds a whole improvisational and jazzy layer to the albums sound. The instrumentals like the opener are some of the most interesting and complex moments but the sound calms down and lets the vocals in which were just as enjoyable. This album has so much going on yet sounds so fine tuned. This is all the more impressive that they were about to disband. The production on the album is well done and was apparently a departure from the usual for them. Thay had already lost a member and I believe this was their last album with only one guitarist so there is heavy usage of guitar overdubs. I didn't even realize while listening but apparently, track 4 was recorded live, but it was integrated perfectly into the albums other studio recorded tracks. They basically disbanded immediately after this albums release and is a well regarded album by the bands fans. Definitely my favorite of what I've heard by them. I will be checking out the other 2 albums with this lineup as soon as I can. (079)