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The motif of the album is in the four short versions of "The Power To Believe". The first is meek and sweet with Eastern percussion while the last concludes the session with Fripp's guitar soaring like a solo violin and a whole variety is in between. "Level Five" displays the tight, almost violently aggressive sound King Crimson has nearly patented. It's a great opener.
Of course, there are plenty of great prog-rock songs such as "Eyes Wide Open", a harken back to "Three Of A Perfect Pair" and "Facts Of Life" with cynical lyrics that made fun of the rich and greedy ("six millionaires crawling on a plate") and immorality ("just because you can doesn't mean you should").
'Newbie boy bands' get skewered on "Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With", with lyrics like, "I'm gonna have to write a chorus, We're gonna need to have another chorus...". It's nicely vicious. Not all is parody, as is shown with a great progressive build of a song with an urgent crescendo in "Dangerous Curves".
Adrian Belew is obviously having a good time and is a great compliment to Fripp's guitar work. Trey Gunn is amazing with all his bass instruments and Pat Mastelotto is extremely confident. Mastelotto may not have the flash that Bill Bruford displays, but his competency and pinpoint accuracy more than makes up for it. This 'King Crimson' grouping is just as tight as any and it's great to hear more innovative and fascinating mixes of talent and instruments thirty years on.
Didn't think too much of it on listen 2
By the sixth or seventh it was beginning to make a great deal of sense.
Anyone expecting this to sound like any previous incarnation of KC would be better off buying the archival stuff - what this is is a distillation of the sound on Construcktion of Light, but with a more sophisticated approach, and a more relaxed interplay between the musicians. And because it gives the impression of "trying less hard" (more concise pieces of music, no tracks named after old 70's stuff, no griping about their fanbase a la "Prozack Blues") it succeeds for me much more than I was previously expecting.
Big kudos to the rhythm section - Mastellotto's drumming is on first listen more pedestrian than Bruford's, but his palette of sounds is fascinating, and his playing is a real pleasure to listen to. Gunn manages to sound nothing like a bass player most of the time, yet this is quite a bottom-frequency heavy beast.
Belew and Fripp have been doing the double guitar thing for well over 20 years now, and it shows. There appears to be an almost telepathic understanding in terms of arrangement and performance, and it's great to hear.
Standout tracks? Dangerous Curves, Happy to be..., and the nods to the past at the beginning of Elektrik, and Power to Believe 2.
It's a fine album. And a grower. And I usually find that they're the best.
1) Adrian Belew's total commitment shines through his lead guitar work, a... Read more
My only sense is one of disappointment, there's nothing that sticks in the... Read more
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