IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

King Crimson's second album is very much alike the first album, a thing people often seem to call a bad thing of this album. But, the debut album was a great album, so I don't think it's bad this album is in the same style. Some songs on the album clearly are meant to do what other songs did on ITCOTCK. For example, "Pictures Of A City" is the new "21st Century Schizoid Man" and "Cadence And Cascade" is the new "I Talk To The Wind". Though the songs are very similar, they are different on some points, which makes it another listen than the songs of ITCOTCK.

"Peace - A Begining" opens the album very softly, this song is a short introduction to what's coming. After a bit less than a minute the heaviest song of the album shows its power. "Pictures Of A City" is definitely my favorite from this album. It's an incredibly powerful jazzy song, in the same style as "21st Century Schizoid Man", but in my opinion even better. The song knows, just as "21st Century Schizoid Man", a jam part and powerful verses, a great song.

The third track is "Cadence And Cascade", a very calm and beautiful track. The song is not the big highlight of the album and not a memorable song, but that is not what it is supposed to be. The song is very much like "I Talk To The Wind" from ITCOTCK but is not as good, though it still is a nice track.

Next is the title track, "In The Wake Of Poseidon". This song is the new "Epitaph", but it's much worse. Where "Epitaph" was one of King Crimson's most epic songs, this one is kind of a faillure, it just doesn't do it for me. Just like "Epitaph", the song is very mellotron and acoustic guitar driven. The acoustic guitar on this song doesn't do it much good and the band decided to add some pretty annoying drums to it. The title track is kind of a dissapointment.

"Peace - A Theme" is a nice acoustic guitar peace, very calm but very good. "Peace - A Theme" is some sort of interlude between "In The Wake Of Poseidon" and the sixth track, "Cat Food". "Cat Food" is a very jazzy track, though not the most proggy track on the album. The instruments in the song are nice, though not special, but Greg's vocals are very annoying here. The vocals are supposed to sound agressive, maybe a bit like "21st Century Schizoid Man", but instead of doing that they sound forced.

The seventh track is better, it's the epic "The Devil's Triangle". This song is King Crimson's version of "Mars: Bringer Of War", by early 20th century composer Gustav Holst. The song features a lot of very aggresive and haunting mellotron and war drums. The song is by far the most epic and original song on In The Wake Of Poseidon and could really "Frighten" you at some moments by it's power. The last several minutes of the song are more experimental than the rest of the song, but also much less epic and kind of an anti-climax. "The Devil's Triangle" is a very good song, one of the highlights of the album. The album closes with "Peace - An End", a reprise of the albums opener, "Peace - A Begining".

In The Wake Of Poseidon has several highlights but is by no means as good as ITCOTCK. I really don't think the album deserves four or five stars, but the album is not really bad either, so I rate it three stars.