IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING

If I were asked "What is prog?" by someone, I would use this album as an example of all of it. While albums before this had been a little progressive, this is the first to truly be progressive though to the core. Almost every other album on this site owes something to this one.

Our album starts off with the hard hitting, attention grabbing 21st Century Schizoid Man. This is probably one of my favorite songs of all time. From the distorted vocals to the stop/start section about 2/3 of the way in, it is sublime. This song cuts off abruptly into I Talk to the Wind, a nice breath of fresh air after the Schizoid Man does his work. This is followed by Epitaph, another amazing song. Sounds very Medieval, in fact.

The B side's first song of two is Moonchild. This is the weakest song on the album, which really doesn't say much. The improvised 10 minutes are an interesting exercise, but really could have been shaved off at the song's 8 minute mark or so. The album calls it a wrap with the melletron heavy The Court of The Crimson King. It and Epitaph are probably the most similar songs on the album, though I don't really care. Its mood really finishes the album well.

The Moonchild issue made me question whether this was a 4 or 5. Then, I factored in the infulence and albsolutely stellar cover art, and the 5 it was.