RED

King Crimson's best album! As much as I like their other albums, this is one of the few where every single song is great. The album starts off with the hard rock song "Red". Very catchy, and the bridge is a good addition, but I think the song is a little repetitive. Nevertheless, it's overall a good song. Then there's "Fallen Angel", which talks about the death of someone's brother in a gang fight. The lyrics are great and it fits the dark theme that exists throughout the album. One of the few times the acoustic guitar is used on the album, the verses are slow and calms things down a little after the opener. Next is "One More Red Nightmare". John Wetton's vocals could use some work on the verses, but Bruford's great percussion and the sax solos more than make up for it. Arguably the best song on the first half of the album. Then the experimental "Providence", which works much better than "Moonchild". Great violin which at times is almost scary and then the song builds in intensity with the electric guitar kicking in. For me, the experimental songs can be hit or miss, so I'm happy I like this one so much! Finally there's "Starless", the album's masterpiece. It's starts off slow with John Wetton giving better vocals than earlier. After Bruford gets a lots of time to show off his great percussion skills, the song builds up with the saxophones joining in and Fripp giving great power chords. What a brilliant ending, and despite being very dark like the rest of the album, there's also a strange sense of beauty to it (for me at least).

An amazing album, and a great place to start off with King Crimson (especially if you like darker or heavier rock music). Highly recommended!