RED

A lot of people's favourite Crimson album and you can see why - down to a three peice of Fripp, Wetton & Bruford (though David Cross and others including Mel Collins and Ian MacDonald contributed), it featured some of their harder edged, more accessible material, as well as an improvisational peice and a prog classic. The first side as was featured three shorter tracks, about 6 - 7 min each. "Red" is a Fripp composition, a guitar led instrumental with a powerful rif; "Fallen Angel" is a song with lyrics by David Palmer-James about two brothers living and dying on the streets of New York; and "One More Red Nightmare" has Wetton adding a touch of dark humour as he dreams while asleep on a Greyhound bus. Side 2 opened with one of the best Crimson improvisations, "Providence", with discordant bumps and squeaks building atmospherically until Fripp's guitar breaks loose. The final track, "Starless", actually fetaures the lyric "Starless & Bible Black", and I've never been sure why it wasn't on the album of the same name. It is a great track, although (minor criticism) it takes a little to long to build up to its climax.

I think on balance I would take "Lark's Tongues" for my desert island (Crimson) disc as it's got that little bit more scope and depth in the quality of the compositions, plus with Jamie Muir and David Cross in place the band sounded more complete. However "Red" is still a great album and should form part of your record collection - that's my advice, in the unlikely event anyone logging into a prog rock web-site hasn't already heard it!