LARKS' TONGUES IN ASPIC

Well, this is a perfect album to follow up with if you own Red and/or ItCotCK, it's that bit less accessable and that bit more 'prog', if you're willing to put in the time and listen to it you'll be suitably rewarded with a successful blending of composition and improvisation- and unlike with the above two albums there aren't any obvious 'skippable' tracks (as with Moonchild and Providence). this does however, mean that the tracks suffer slightly collectively instead.

This is one of those albums that form a pleasing cohesive whole- you'd be pained to listen to these tracks in any other order as they ebb and flow in a well thought out and structured way. The King Crimson penchance for musical dynamics is quite extremem here- on the opening track especially- don't turn up your stereo too much to hear the chimes and percussion at the beginnning, or when the evil seeps in you'll open yourself up to Robert Fripp jumping right down your throat and thrashing around with some of the most agressive playng he's ever unleashed. The title tracks second section is by far the most widley know peice on this album, everyone's heard Pt II, there's not much I can add, timeless writing, great playing, possibly overrated. But IMHO the first part gets more and more rewarding with repeated listens wheras Part II kind of stays exactly the same. But this is of course due to Part 1 having far more improv, which can get a bit meandering and pointless in parts, and perhaps could've been edited more stringently, but it's hard to critizise the timing of the dynamics, which are pretty much spot on.

Book Of Saturday is a track which I find myself listening to a surprizing amount, because a lot of complex playing is hidden beneath its deceptive serenity- the lack of percussion hides its quick tempo. Exiles- well... it's alright, I guess. I think they stretch it out a bit too much. It has some great moments, but they are built up to for too long and don't last long enough- I imagine the more I listen to it the more I shall like it. Easy Money is a classic in my eyes, an inspired and well performed mix of composition & playing about with sounds. The dynamic contrast between sections is one aspect of prog that I love. The Talking drum is little more in my eyes than an extended intro to the last part, padding but an essential peice of padding if you get my drift- like with Fish (Schindelria Premataurus) on Fragile, blatant padding, but you wouldn't cut it from the album, nossir!

So in conclusion, IMHO it falls just short of five stars due to it's slight meandering that wastes space that it could have used to fit in more brilliance, but there's no way I could give it less than four as it's definalty one of KCs best efforts, and one I'll be listening to many, many times. Easy Money.