THE POWER TO BELIEVE

King Crimson

Eclectic Prog

3.96 | 1412 ratings

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Rune2000
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator

It was great to know that King Crimson had found a way to return to the path that they paved on THRAK while still managing to make things sound fresh and exciting!

Unlike The ConstruKction Of Light which featured a very dark and technical approach to the band's sound, The Power To Believe actually manages to concentrate itself on the individual compositions and bring out their standout qualities. The sound might still be technical, but now this approach generates sounds and patterns that are quite memorable and make for great bookmarks on our journey through this recording.

The individual moments like Level Five, Elektrik and Facts Of Life put almost all of the material off The ConstruKction Of Light to shame. There's just no comparison between the two albums for me since this release clearly shows an improvement of the themes without pushing them too far into the extreme. But there are a few somewhat questionable instances here as well. For instance, I really see no point in the four The Power To Believe pieces that for most part are pleasant, but lack the intensity and instant recognizability that most of the stand-alone compositions here possess.

Fans of the softer side of the band, like myself, will definitely enjoy Eyes Wide Open since it sounds like a logical continuation of the style that was set on Walking On Air and One Time off THRAK. Another nice surprise comes towards the end with the weirdly titled tune Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With which happens to make a lot of sense to a metalhead like myself. I also like that Dangerous Curves sounds almost like a tune written by Steve Wilson, simply a great treat for all the Porcupine Tree fans out there!

With such a strong release like The Power To Believe I'm really surprised that King Crimson have not yet followed it up with another studio album. But I'm not going to count out the mighty Crim just yet. Still, even if this release would happen to be their final I doubt that any other band can compare with King Crimson's track record in terms of releasing quality material over the course of so many decades!

***** star songs: Level Five (7:17) Eyes Wide Open (4:08) Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With (3:17)

**** star songs: The Power To Believe I: A Cappella (0:44) Elektrik (8:00) Facts Of Life: Intro (1:38) Facts Of Life (5:05) The Power To Believe II (7:43) Dangerous Curves (6:42) The Power To Believe IV: Coda (2:29)

*** star songs: The Power To Believe III (4:09)

Rune2000 | 4/5 | 2010-9-23

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