IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

Much on the vein of it's magical predecessor,In The Wake Of Poseidon is a highly atmospheric album,made by musicians who have perfect notion of what's fittable for this specific work.Although the final result doesn't stand quite on pair with In The Court of The Crimson King(then again it would be almost impossible to acomplish so),it is still some of the best music made in that year of 1970.The band's personell suffered changes between the two efforts,most notably the departure of Ian Mcdonald.Robert Fripp,the other head of the group,remained still though,and so did Greg Lake for the most part of the record.

In therms of structure,this album is quite similar to their 1969 masterpiece,but the music tends to a more jazzy direction here,for the most part slightly lighter and not as obsucre sounding as the album made in the previous year.The occult,misterious character of In The Court of the Crimson King is kept though,and that is felt since the very beggining,where Greg Lake has it's voice echoed through a brief and dark poem in the introduction Peace-A Beggining.From there,follows the heaviest track of the record,the jazz influenced Pictures of A City.In a way,this one does bring in mind the apocalyptical wilderness and bizarre presentation of 21st Century Schizoid Man,but all in all this song does not have the touch of magic from the latter.It is still an excellent piece by all means.

If something negative may be pointed out,it is the fact that,even though it's complex compositions flow perfectly well within context,they tend to sound somehow misplaced as singular pieces.Then again,this is brought up exclusevely because the previous effort managed to turn out incredibly well in this aspect.So being that In The Wake of Poseidon is a record faded to be forever overshadowed by the classic masterpiece that preceded it,it is perhaps unfair to judge the album by this irrelevant imperfection.

There's not a weak song here,but credit must be given to the genious touch of the three 'Peace' tracks.Opening and closing the album,they set the absolut mood,while placed as an instrumental interlude halfway through,Peace comes as a perfect moment of joyfull relief.This songs do contribuite to the album's remarkable subtleness,and reforce the excellent impression left by the main pieces.

Although it may be a more conventional effort,Poseidon is yet another example of the excellence of King Crimson on studio,in a very strong and consistent prog album.Highly recommended,despite the critcisms it has been receiving for the last four decades.