IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING

I'm going to hit it straight with you that this album is in my humble opinion one of the most hyped, overrated albums in all of Prog? Why is it, there are a lot of details that I will provide, but I'm reviewing the album, not listing reasons why this album is no better than 3 stars in my mind.

The album starts off with a rocker, reminds me heavily of earlier heavy metal, with great vocals, a great start to the album, but not one of the better starts to an album. This track is probably the only track I listen on ITCHYCOCK as of recently, because of the "locomotive-like start" and the "intense vocals".

I talk to the Wind is a very interesting song I'd say, but that's all I'm going to say. Many people above me have called this a very beautiful music, but I can't really hear the passion or the beauty that these people say. This song is basically in my opinion a mediocre King Crimson song without much conviction, even though it is there. Definitely a downer after the very good album beginner.

Then the songs after that really go downhill, I talk to the Wind was the beginning of the end for me on this album. Epitaph is a great tune for showing off Prog vocals but nothing more, as it does nothing for me. Moonchild starts beautifully, but then I don't understand how it drags on and on and on and on and on, really not that great, a lot of it is filler IMO. And the last track... Well it makes a lot of ELP seem like it wasn't filler, as much as I enjoy Lake's voice and Fripp's sense of instrumentation, I just can't comprehend the filler and the waste of my time. I probably last listened to this track a full year ago.

Overall:

21st Century- 90% I Talk to the Wind- 80% Epitaph- 75% Moonchild- 70% ITCHYCOCK (Title track)- 65%

As you see, the tracks all go downhill for me, but overall I don't think of this album as that bad. Its a worth listen once in a while and is a pretty good debut album, much better than the Rush or Genesis albums respectively, but it is not the best first album I've heard.

Instead I'd recommend Red, Lizard, Discipline or Larks for the first time listener.

Overall I'd rank it about a

74%