IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

With the rest of the band leaving, Fripp found himself with a recording contract and good songs, but no band. So, he asked Lake and Giles to please finish the recording, which they did with the help of Pete Giles on bass, and Mel Collins filing in for the departed Ian McDonald on saxes and flutes. Fripp essentially copied the formula established by their debut here, particularly on side one. After a soft prelude, the album storms in with the Schizoid Man-like (and excellent) 'Pictures of a City'. This was a key part of their US tour, and Greg Lake sings it, thankfully. However, Lake didn't sing the second song, 'Cadence and Cascade', which mirrors 'I Talk to the Wind' from Court, so Gordon Haskell (and old friend of Fripp's) is brought in to sing it, making his Crimson debut. He would continue on to sing on Lizard, but would then fall out with Fripp. 'In the Wake of Poseidon' is then the mirror of 'Epitaph'. The first side sounds a lot like Court, but just not quite as good. The second side is where the formula starts to deviate. It opens with the first statement of Peace - A Theme, and then instead of the soft improv from Court that is 'Moonchild', the album gets rockin' with 'Cat Food', the single from this album. This is a decent tune, with some quirky jazzy parts, and would point to the sound that would inhabit their third album, Lizard. The rest of side two has Fripp trying to re-create the magic of Crimson's version of the Holst classic 'Mars' (which one can hear on the live recordings contained in the 'Epitaph' box set), but with enough slight changes to the tune so that it classifies as an original song. The result is 'The Devil's Triangle'. Unfortunately, this tune fails, badly. As someone who loves Crimson's version of Mars, and who is also a fan of Holst, I can't listen to the Devil's Triangle. Not only is it a rip-off, but it suddenly stops and starts at key times when it really needs to be continuous - jarring the listener and raising one's ire. Fripp really messed up with this track. In the end, there is really only one great track on this album - Pictures of a City - and another decent track - Cat Food. Other than this, the album just doesn't have the Crimson magic, and Devil's Triangle is simply frustrating to listen to. So much potential. I can't help but wonder how this would have sounded if McDonald and the rest of the band hadn't split. I give this album 6.8 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which translates to 3 PA stars.

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