THE POWER TO BELIEVE

The Power to Believe is King Crimson's final studio album so far, if you don't count A Scarcity of Miracles (which, though dubbed a King Crimson ProjeKct, is credited to Jakszyk, Fripp and Collins), and if it turns out to be their final studio album ever it won't be a half bad way to go out. (The current lineup, though they perform some new tunes, seem to be more than content operating as a live unit.)

Is it a towering classic reconfiguring the way we think of rock music in general and prog specifically like their debut, or Red, or Larks' Tongues In Aspic, or Discipline? No. But you don't expect a band that's been operating as long as Crimson has to reinvent the wheel every release. And when it comes to integrating more modern sounds into the Crimson template, and offering up a set of songs ranging from metal-bordering hard modern prog a la Tool or Porcupine Tree on the one hand to updated ambient-tinged takes on some of the more experimental material from the 1980s lineup, the album does a damn good job of it.

Should this be their studio swan-song, we can be pleased that it was this good; it'd have been a shame to go out on The ConstruKction of Light. Should the current incarnation of the band have plans for a studio followup, they'd be well advised to regard this as setting the bar. King Crimson has well and truly hit the phase of their career where they are contemplating their long-term legacy as well as enjoying their rich heritage (witness the return of some early 1970s material to the live repertoire which hasn't had an airing since the Earthbound tour at least!), and it would be a shame to smudge that legacy with a final album which didn't measure up to this one's high standards.