RED

Unlike most people here I will not talk about technique but concentrate on the feelings I have, listening to this album. The first piece is REd - a very strong instrumental that makes me feel the sense of caos, terror & horror. then comes Fallen angel which is beautiful and sad and seems to me as an elegy of the state of mankind. One more red nightmare is a cinical desperate say of where we stand. Providence is the weird piece of the album - tunes that does'nt fit to a melody but listening to it carefully gives me the feeling of waiting for the bomb to fall, not welcoming it but paralized by the thought. The last cut is the longest and complicated one, named only starless because the full name (starless & bible black) was used in a previous album with that name. It starts with a liric lament sang by wetton and then turns to an instrumental theme that rises to let us feel how the end of the world will sound (and to warn us it's about to come). Remembering this album was made at 1974 when the detant was at it's peak and many people were building atomic shelters we can easily understand what this album is dealing with. Red is after all the colour of blood. The use of dissonant tunes was never so massive and it emphasise the feel of despair. For me this is King Crimson's best album and the one I will choose if I have to hear only one album for the rest of my life.