RED

Less is more on "Red", where the trio of BRUFORD, FRIPP and WETTON execute lucid arrangements of top-shelf material. The opening title track picks up where "Fracture" left off, an angular, instrumentally daunting composition that presages the style expounded on in 1981's "Discipline". "Fallen Angel" and "One More Red Nightmare" move with purpose, a pair of songs that rank with CRIMSON's best. On side two, violinst DAVID CROSS and a handful of ex-Crimsonites are re-admitted to the fold for the experimental art jazz of "Providence" and the brilliant song, "Starless." This last track reveals a restraint not found in the band's earlier work -- from FRIPP's deceptively simple guitar solo to BRUFORD's studied manipulation of percussion, "Starless" proves the pinky of God is more powerful than the hands of man.

Not everyone is enamored of "Red" - one critic called the final track "listless" -- but for those that have been watching Crimson closely to this point, it's a near-final step in evolution.