IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

Now don't get me wrong, this is a very good album, decent follow up to an altogether masterpiece and strong piece of work. However "In the Wake of Poseidon" has some serious issues which I am sure anyone who has listen to this album and the debut can recognize. I am not the first reviewer to adress this.

The clues are there from the start, another album with a title that goes "In the ... of ...". This album offers some very good pieces yet, from the very first listen it is evident that this is a complete rehash of the debut album.

The various peace themes on the album are similar to the intro of "21st century Schizoid Man". These pieces are very quiet, short and gloomy much like the intro part of the first album. This then leads into quite a loud and long winding experimental piece. "Pictures of a City" has very unsubtle similarities in structure and sound to the incredible debut tune that kicked off King Crimson as we know it. Pictures is good but has nothing on Schizoid Man.

Now you may remember the debut album leading into a mellow ballad like track (i talk to the wind), this is very much the same case on this album. Similarly with "Pictures of a City", this is a very good song, yet it does steal from "I Talk to the Wind", perhaps less noticeably than the way Pictures of a City steals from Schizoid Man.

In the Wake of Poseidon carry's on these issues as it is a complete blag from the title track of the first album. These 3 tracks in a row have confirmed that this album definetly has some troubles with originality. By now it is kind of tedious just how much it sounds like the debut. Still very good written pieces but this album is lacking in anything new to offer. I think King Crimson do manage to get away with it though, after all they are young, new to the rock scene and still finding their way through new material.

Fortunately, the remaining tracks on this album, "Cat Food" especially, do sound very original and are more interesting pieces. Overall this album could possibly be a very flawed masterpiece. The music here is very good and I would recommend this album to any KC fan, however it's lack of much new stuff to offer really is a problem on this album and leads to an overall 3 stars out of 5. Luckily, King Crimson's next albums offer much more original and new sounds, though this did cost them constant line-up changes. In the Wake of Poseidon marks itself as Greg Lake and Michael Giles would be part of King Crimson.