IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

This is King Crimson's follow up to the debut, and while it isn't bad at all, it is lacking inspiration. It is well known that a lot of the people involved in the project weren't particularly keen on being there, such as vocalist Greg Lake and Drummer Michael Giles.

I did once see a movie called 'The Poseidon Adventure' about a sinking ship, and that kind of is a good metaphor for this album and what happened here.

With Fripp at the helm and trying to recreate the success of the previous 'In the Court of the Crimson King', the songs 'Pictures of a city' and 'In the wake of Poseidon' are *highly reminiscent* of the songs '21st Century Schizoid Man' and 'Epitaph' from the first album, respectively. The difference this time is a marked decline in enthusiasm and passion.

Also, 'Cadence and Cascade' feels similar to the 'I talk to the wind' from the debut disc, but different enough to avoid too many comparisons, mainly because it is being sung by Gordon Haskell rather than Greg Lake. So the first side is pretty much a re-run of the previous albums' first side, with the addition of the brief 'Peace - A beginning'.

The second side of 'In the wake of Poseidon' is new, but it isn't that good. Actually, it kind of 'points the way' to the material the band would make a few years later; dissonant, dark, noisy, eccentric. But despite that, it's not good. Well, 'Cat Food' is a fine pop-rock song, quirky though, and catchy, but the lengthy 'Devil's Triangle' is just not good. This is also bookended with 'Peace - a theme' and 'Peace - an end'. The 'Peace' song might have been better if it wasn't broken into three pieces.

Overall, not an amazing album, but a decent listen if you like this style of progressive rock. King Crimson are a highly innovative band, but this wasn't one of their most inspiring releases. Two Stars.