DANGER MONEY

UK's self-titled debut album hasn't aged very well, but the harder-rocking follow-up recorded by the newly stripped-down trio a year afterward actually sounds better in retrospect. New drummer Terry Bozzio (not a familiar name at the time) was more in tune than Bill Bruford with the grandiose commercial ambitions of John Wetton and Eddie Jobson. And because he no longer had to share the stage with an ace guitarist, Jobson responded with some of his most assertive playing on record.

Musically the album traces the muscular template of "In the Dead of Night", the obvious high point of the previous album. The reconfigured band may have been more song- than music-oriented, perhaps revealing the direction Wetton had hoped to steer KING CRIMSON (and why Robert Fripp quit in response). But the new songs left generous space for instrumental exploration. And Jobson in particular rose to the challenge, stealing the spotlight with his trademark Perspex violin, in "The Only Thing She Needs" and the punchy "Caesar's Palace Blues", and showing all the brio of a less-classical Keith Emerson (the sophomore UK album appeared only four months after ELP crashed onto "Love Beach", leaving a vacancy in the keyboard virtuoso pantheon).

The only stumble on an otherwise strong effort is "Nothing to Lose", an obvious bid for radio airplay foreshadowing the trite Arena Pop of ASIA. But that misstep is quickly overshadowed by the mini-epic album closer "Carrying No Cross", a poor second-cousin of sorts to the celebrated King Crimson finale "Starless", with a similar structure of escalating tension and release over twelve invigorating minutes.

Splitting up a band can sometimes benefit everyone involved. Bruford and Allan Holdsworth both moved on to impeccable Fusion careers, while the remaining UK players rediscovered the focus that had eluded them on the first LP. It didn't last very long (see the obligatory, by-the-numbers live album "Night After Night"), but even a brief flash-in-the-pan was better than the empty kettle of Wetton's next supergroup.