IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

I think after a couple of listens I am starting to warm up to this album. The first time I heard it I was totally disappointed. I couldn't believe that KC could turn out a piece of work so unremarkable. But as I say, I'm warming up to it.

Pictures of a City is as good a track as they've ever produced, with that trademark intensity that we've all come to expect. Things cool down a little after that, and I find Cadence and Cascade boring and overly long, even though it's only four and a half minutes. I have somewhat mixed feelings about the title track. On the one hand, it sounds almost exactly like an inferior version of Epitaph from ITCOTCK. On the other, it features the amazing Michael Giles (my favorite drummer ever and a major part of the reason I bought this album in the first place) banging away magnificently. I actually like the "Peace" themes. They are very pretty and restful. However, Cat Food (which many of my fellow reviewers seem to love) strikes me as totally out of place on the album. It reminds me of ELP, which to my ears is not a good thing. If there is one track that should have been left on the cutting room floor, it's Cat Food, because it totally breaks the flow of the album. Finally we come to the "epic" of the album, the instrumental "Devil's Triangle," with its sinister mellotrons and sinister 5/4 rhythm. The first time I heard the track I found it meandering and directionless, but the more I listen to it, the more I appreciate its brrooding atmosphere. The ending could have used a little trimming though. This is supposedly a rip off of Holst's "Mars" from The Planets, but I don't really hear the resemblance. Then again, I am one of the few people who don't think the theme from Star Wars is a rip off of that same piece, so go figure.

Overall, ITWOP is not a bad album, and not even a bad KC album, but compared to their other masterpieces such as "Lizard," "Red," and the aforementioned debut, it's just a bit lackluster.