RED

Being my first whole album exposure to King Crimson, Red feels very dark and atmospheric. The music is far from minimalistic, but it has a pleasant stripped-down take on the music. As if it was played in a vacuum. Every note truly pierces the listeners ears, making it really hard to lose attention. It's also one of many few albums in which the saxophones are one-hundred percent enjoyable.

The five songs (a total of 40 minutes) are all good in their own way, although Starless must be considered the true masterpiece here. The strings (guess it's mellotron) and saxophones in the beginning, accompanied by Wetton's vocals and bass takes this song up to ethereal levels before leaving room for the rough bass sounds (reminds me of Entwistle) and spooky guitar that transports us to the finale of from time to time jazzy improv (that's how it feels). Great tune!

Providende has some serious problems to recover after the way too long 'intro' filled with squeaky violin noise, and Red, although I loved it the first times, grows repetitive with time.

One thing that baffles me when listening to Red is its heaviness, and it's not heavy as in 'heavy metal', for those of you who might interpret it that way. No, its heaviness lies both in the instrumentation and in the deeply emotional maelstrom the albums develops into. It's hard not to be affected by its starkness and I always feel vaguely apathetic (in a good way...) when the last tone fades out.

Even if this isn't your music, you should at least try it once only for the experience.

//Linus