IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

Often said to be just a carbon copy of their first classic album. While there are some indisputable similarities between these two albums, I see it more as a elaboration of the first, or second draft if you will. "Pictures of the City" certainly reminds of "21st Century Schizoid Man", but it is more ambitious, more varied, it even goes through a soft and moody part built on a bass riff in the middle, with some tasteful improvisation over it, sort of like "Moonchild" but more successful and integrated. "Cadence and Cascade" was the debut of Gordon Haskell in the band, and this one resembles "I Talk to the Wind", but the band is more dynamic on this one, more confident. The title track, the counterpart of "Epitaph", truly is just a carbon copy, although it does feature the flamenco stylings of Robert Fripp, that would only appear on one other track by King Crimson. "Cat Food" breaks the trend with its Beatles-like bass riff, enriched by the frantic free jazz piano lines of Keith Tippett. Great preview of what would happen on the next album. "The Devil's Triangle" is an instrumental borrowing of Gustav Holst's "Mars". Its alluring collage of mellotron sounds makes it irresistible for fans of that instrument, but in the end it sounds dated, much like many of ELP's arrangements of classics.

There is something else very interesting about the album, how there are three other tracks, one intro, one interlude, and an outro featuring a cappella voice, then solo acoustic guitar, and then the marriage of the two for the outro. Their modern album "Power to Believe" has a similar structure, and this is one of the fascinating things about King Crimson - the structure of each song, within the structure of each album, within the structure of their very conceptual career.