LIZARD

King Crimsons jazzy, melodic, heavy, and downright weird album. King Crimson was going through allot of changes when this came out. Mel Collins was the only member who stayed after ITWOP, and Keith Tippett as well, but he wasn't an official member. As a result we had something completely different than there first two albums. You all wanted change? Here it is! Not change for good or bad, just different. This album has sax, A vocalist with a completely different sound, and is quite good. Sinfield still is writing lyrics here, so most of this makes very little sense, but I guess it didn't need to. Cirkus is about a nightmarish place I guess. Indoor Games and Happy Family I have never really analizyed lyrically as the songs just don't interest me very much, these two are listenable, but that's really it. Lady of the Dancing Water is nice, it seems to be a song in the same vein as Moonchild. And than we have the title track which is King Crimsons only "epic". Jon Anderson makes a welcome appearance on the first segment of the song. The biggest virtue of this song is the bolero. Which reprises the first melody, and also does its own thing. Very beautiful part of the song. Lizard manages to hold my attention for 23 minutes which is the sign of a well put together epic. Overall I'd give this one a 4 star rating, a little closer to 3.5. One of those albums you just have to pick up and make your own opinion about.