LIZARD

Ahh, those beautiful Fripp acoustic parts. The best part about this album in my view, since Fripp would rarely use them after this. Still, caution in required in approaching this album. For years, I thought it was terrible (an evaluation shared by Fripp and many of the people involved in making it years later). But having decided to pick it up about a year ago, I gave it a reevaluation. When listened to on its own terms (which you pretty much have to do with ANY Crimson album since they are generally all so different), it is quite interesting. I think what causes a problem is the dense instrumentation. The songs are rarely allowed to breath. Plus, there is a heavy jazz influence throughout which is unusual for a Crimson album. The overall affect is that this is some very bizarre music. The vocals don't work well for me, with the notable exception of Jon Anderson singing the beautiful first section of the epic Lizard. In fact, that track has the best music of the whole album on it (though I still get annoyed by the concluding Big Top, which seems to take all the wind out of the piece). Cirkus is a good tune, but very strange. And Lady Of The Dancing Water is a nice ballad to break up the strangness of the rest of the album. Keith Tippit is notable for his wild piano playing, which certainly helps with the strangeness I keep mentioning.

My advice is to not start with this album :) But I think it is a decent album and deserving of 3 stars, possible another half star.