LIZARD

This is King Crimson's hardest album to get into to. You need repeated listens to appreciate this album. CIRKUS is a pure masterpiece from Crimson and has wonderful acoustic guitar work. INDOOR GAMES is not a great song, but overall it is completely tolerable. The horns and saxes may make the song seem like a bit of nonsense. HAPPY FAMILY is just a tad bit better than Indoor Games, however, the distortion of Gordon Haskell's vocals do not fit in great. Even Haskell himself did not like what they did to his voice. Happy Family is sneakily about the Beatles. This represents the fact that Peter Sinfield's lyrics were just about at their peak here. A short track called LADY OF THE DANCING WATER follows Happy Family. Despite it's length, it is much better than the previous two pieces. It is that of what I Talk To The Wind was on their debut album.

The final track, Lizard, is King Crimson's greatest (and possibly strangest) achievement. The first 11 minutes are fantastic: Jon Anderson's vocals go perfectly with the lyrics and music. The chorus is downright spectacular. The rest of the song (except for "Bolero") may get a little overwhelming, but this is another Crimson masterpiece. Without the title track, this album is not that good. I give it 4 stars.