IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

In The Wake of Poseidon gets a lot of comparisons to its predecessor, and quite fairly. The sound of both albums is very similar, probably more so than any other two KC albums (at least in the band's initial output). But Poseidon still holds a few surprises.

An unflattering homage to New York, "Pictures of a City" is Poseidon's "21st Century Schizoid Man". The raucous composition creates a feeling of chaos that really puts you down on the dirty, bustling side streets, evocative of NYC in the late 1960s. "Cadence and Cascade", this album's "I Talk to the Wind", slows things down, while introducing future KC lead singer Gordon Haskell to the mix. And the title track is reminiscent of, you guessed it, "The Court of the Crimson King". While these are all good songs, none of them (except maybe "Cadence and Cascade") hold up to their counterparts from the debut album. What sets In The Wake of Poseidon apart, and makes it a slight improvement, is the second half.

"Cat Food" is not just unique in the context of this album, but to KC's entire catalogue. In fact, it almost seems to belong on a more recent KC album. The lyrics in particular sound like something Adrian Below would churn out, compared to the usual mysticism of Peter Sinfield. The song itself has an offbeat jazz fusion vibe.

"The Devil's Triangle" is Crimson's take on Gustav Holst's "Mars, the Bringer of War". It's very interesting to hear KC take on a classical piece, but it proves they didn't quite have the affinity for it like some of their contemporaries (see The Nice). Although it presages some of KC's darker moments to come, the song drags on just a bit too long.

The whole album is bookended by the "Peace" trilogy. Not a particularly memorable collection of songs, but they do give the album a sense of wholeness.

On this sophomore album, Robert Fripp takes control. Having a hand in only three of the five songs on ITCOTCK, he writes nearly this entire album by himself. That could be what accounts for the improvement. Fortunately, Fripp wasn't done here.