IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

Without "Cat Food", In The Wake Of Poseidon would definitely be a less entertaining experience. I've heard King Crimson's debut hundreds of times before I finally listened to this followup, and man, for a while I was a bit bummed. The songs aren't bad by any means, but they weren't exactly turning my eyes into slinkies either.

Pictures Of A City is a pretty kickin' tune in its own right, although the middle section doesn't deliver, getting soft but not hitting back particularly hard before it ends. Yeah, it gets loud again, but it feels, for some reason, "standard", like part of a routine. Band has dinner. Band plays "Pictures Of A City". Band poops and does a crossword puzzle. Band goes to bed. I didn't feel any sense of adventure, which the album title seemed to promise. "Cadence And Cascade" apes "I talk To The Wind", but with vocals by Haskell. It's alright, but not really in the same class as the original...I mean the second song from ITCOTCK. The title track follows, and is basically an amorphous meshing of "Epitaph" and ITCOTCK's title track. It works pretty good though, and although it doesn't necessarily impress, it's kinda' cool.

The true coolness kicks in with "Cat Food". You can't honestly say it sounds remotely like "Moonchild" or is a clone of anything off their debut. As the second to last 'main' track on this album, it's got a slinky, grooovy vibe and lyrics, though 'out there', show the band losing some pretension and having some fun while still tossing in some cookin' musicianship. It's one of my favorite tunes by them, and yeah, best song on the album.

"The Devil's Triangle" works as a deranged instrumental that conjures the song title very well. It's essentially a musical whirlwind and listening to it does give the impression of being stuck in a particularly harrowing storm. The Peace tunes are little ditties to add some garnish to the whole thing, kind of like putting garnish on cat food. It's a nice thing to do, but it doesn't really spice up the food too much.

It's really a borderline situation for me whether I would consider it excellent or good, but since sitting on a fence hurts after a bit, I'll just give it the excellent treatment because of that one insanely groovy cool tune this album possesses, and the fact that nothing here is as utterly annoying as "Moonchild". It must be tough to be this album, always being compared to its elder sibling, but as a stand-alone, a lot of bands back then would have loved to have said they created these songs.

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