IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

After the immense success of the first album, things got rocky for band members, with mastermind Ian McDonald leaving (soon to be followed by the brothers Gilles and Greg Lake). It fell on Fripp´s hands to handle the burden. He had not such a driving importance in the first album (at least songwriting wise) so it might be very hard to him. Greg lake was reported annoyd to leave the bass to Peter Gilles and be only the singer. During the sessions he just left the band for greater things on ELP and Gordon Haskell had to be recruited to finish the album vocals. Some great jazz musicians were asked to join. Little wonder this album is so confusing and unbalanced!

Nevertheless, the musicians talent and drive (specially Fripp´s) saved the project somehow. Ok, some songs do sound a little too much like the first LP, but still it is a good work. Pictures of A City has always struck me as a poor man´s copy of 21st Century Schizoid Man, but aside from that, In The Wake Of Poseidon is quite different. The title track has some of Greg Lake´s most moving vocals, an enigmatic lyric and some beautiful mellotron. It is my favorite track on the whole disc. Cadance And Cascade is also nice, with some great flute done by Mel Collins. Cat Food is a interesting jazz rock piece that shows the path King Crimson would follow soon. The peace themes are just small vignettes, not really songs. And the instrumental trilogy The Devil´s Triangle was maybe a novelty at the time, but I found it nowadays to be just boring exercise of the mellotron, just pointless filler.

With all this in mind I can´t really call this album essential. It is very good in parts and clearly shows a turbulent period King Crimson was facing at the time. It was their first major crise and they survived. So this is a transitional work. Good, but hardly the first one you should pick up. Try In The Court Of the Crimson King, then get this one. 3 stars.