LIZARD

KING CRIMSON albums have mostly all been either reviewed in positive light or pulled apart by some rock 'n roll "analyst" a million times, with "Lizard" being no exception. I must admit that KC have always held a special place in my heart as one of the real corner stones in the genre we know as "progressive rock" as "Lizard" is one of their classic outputs which needs to be mentioned here. Not unlike early KING CRIMSON's "In The Court Of The Crimson King" I find "Lizard" builds on this work with increased exploratory sights and a much heavier jazz-rock portrayal. Lyrics have been well crafted by Peter Sinfield and are sung by Gordon Haskell, guitar and mellotron skillfully used by Robert Fripp throughout and even a guest appearance of a very youthful sounding Jon Anderson (YES). For years one of my most beloved tracks of all time is the title track "Lizard" which is the epic track on the album and opens with Jon Anderson's angelic voice... I always wished that he did the whole album with Fripp and friends as he sounds superb with this band... "Lizard" is a delicate yet highly intricate album which moves in and out of many different caverns and carries a high dream like quality to it. Instrumentation is brilliant and if you are able to pick up the new re-mastered version on HDCD you will be absolutely blown away as the well preserved sound capability on this 30 year old treasure.