IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING

Upon first listen only "21st Century Schizoid Man" jumped out at me from this great album and beside the killer riff that is central to the song are the fantastic lyrics written by Peter Sinfeld. A legendary song that still sounds fresh today. After "Schizoid" each song that followed took a little longer for me to get into. "I Talk to the Wind" is a beautiful song and expertly arranged(is this really the same Ian McDonald of early Foreigner fame?) "Epitaph" brings Greg Lake's vocals to the forefront with plenty of emotion and the song as a whole has a forboding darkness especially with the verse "The fate of all mankind is in the hand of fools" Not a lot has changed in forty years. I like "Moonchild" with it's almost childlike imagery that paints a ghostly supernatural picture, again great lyrics from Sinfeld and finally the album ends with the epic title track. The song while somewhat dated in it's arrangement seems like a lost treasure by todays standards with some interesting drumming from Michael Giles. This album is very much a product of it's time however the musicianship is excellent and todays modern bands are hard pressed to come up with anything as unique and inspiring as this. I give it five stars as an essential to any prog collection.