LIZARD

King Crimson returns with a new singer, and an excellent album. Gordon Haskell, though not nearly as good a singer as Greg Lake, is however, perfect for this album (he didn't seem to fit well singing Cadence and Cascade). The album opens with Cirkus. There is an evil insanity to this song that is hard to explain, it is definitely best track on the album. But the rest of the album is still so good. Indoor Games and Happily Family continue with more dark insanity, and there is finally some relief at the end of side one with Lady of the Dancing Water. Side 2 contains a side long title track epic. Lizard starts off beautiful, with Jon Anderson of Yes singing a powerful, but somewhat unsettling 'Prince Ruport Awakes'. His voice is a welcome addition to this album, as Haskell's, though distinct and fitting for the darker stuff, doesn't quite work as well for a song such as this. The second movement is a beautiful instrumental arrangement featuring flowing oboe and trumpet solos. There is some jazz improvisations also thrown in here. But it's not long before things take a turn for the evil again when the last movement, the battle of glass tears kicks in. It is dark, heavy, and frantic at times. The album then ends with some more cheerful cirkus insanity with big top. This is one of the best King Crimson albums. On par with the second one, but not as good as the first.