ISLANDS

For me this album is one of the most interesting King Crimson effort, because it's at the same time something completely new for the band, and a delicate bridge between "Lizard" and "Lark's Tongues In Aspic".

Experimental nature of "Islands" is pretty much obvious in cause of contrast that was made by far more aggressive sound of previous album. There we have very calm and almost meditative soundscapes which are being represented to us starting with the first section of the disc.

I think now it's time to say something about album's structure. For me it can be simply divided into three major parts, where the first consists of tracks 1 and 2 which make a so-called "Sailor's Tale Suite" I like to think about it as an almost twenty-minute piece because the transition between the tracks is insanely smooth and they are very similar to each other if we speaking about atmosphere. For me this part is probably the best in the entire album, cause it gives many different and entertaining moves, which combine variety of greatly enjoyable moods.

The second part takes it place at tracks 3-5 and is the most experimental part of the album. Although it's still enjoyable I personally think that it's a bit of a letdown of an album.

Finally the last part is the title track only. And that's where things get very complicated, because it's one of a few songs which I find deeply personal but I can't say definitely why it's so. Still it won't stop me from getting shivers every time I listen to it.

I already said a lot about my all-time favorite, though I can speak about how gorgeous it is about an hour or even more, but there is still one thing that I want to mention - if you really listen to it carefully, then you can see pieces and moods that'll directly make their way to next King Crimson work. It provides very nice transition of styles within band's discography.

So, in the nutshell "Islands" is very calm but at the same time a very personal experience, something that you need to listen at least once. For me it's true masterpiece, and I won't hesitate even a bit from rating this 5/5.