IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

In The Wake of Poseidon was the second release of King Crimson, with some new members, and some old. What it turns out to be is a great album, with some of the most mellow, and yet some of the most chaotic passages of King Crimson's career.

''Peace - A Beginning'' is the song that starts off this album. It involves vocals by Greg Lake (None other) and fades out with some guitar notes. It's a rather quiet song, that makes the listener turn up the volume... only to get struck by...

''Pictures of A City'' which by many is seen as In The Wake's version of 21st Century Schizoid Man. It is a great song, with absolutely stunning drumming from Michael Giles and very cool guitar lines. The vocals are screamed, but unfortunately they don't share the same exiting and distorted sound that 21st Century Schizoid Man had. After the vocals, the guitar goes higher and higher, until the awesome jazzy middle section, sometimes even dual layered. The sax soon joins. It builds up and reaches a stunning climax, in which I get amazed every time. Then it evolves into a quiet, very jazzy section were the ride cymbal and bass guitar leads it forward. Some guitar playing by Robert Fripp makes it even more mellow. Again, it slowly builds up, with the guitar picking getting harder, the drumming faster and the bass louder. Then the vocals kick in again, and end this masterpiece, in the same way as 21st Century Schizoid Man (And that way is chaos).

''Cadence And Cascade'' then kicks in. It's a beautiful track, and the guitar is great. The vocals are soft and mellow, and they fit the mood for the song very well. The chorus is definitely one of the highlights of the song. The soft, exressive drumming, the beautiful guitar work, Greg's gorgeous vocals and the piano to close the chorus all work amazingly well together. At 02.20 a beautiful flute solo by Mel Collins kicks in, and makes me smile every time. The song then returns to vocals that work together with the flute, and the song has a small instrumental passage before closing up. And that leaves us with...

''In The Wake Of Poseidon'', that's the title track. And what a splendid title track! The song is heavily driven by loud, beautiful mellotron and some of Greg's best vocals ever. The guitar work is brilliant, and perhaps some of Fripps best acoustic pieces, and the snare drum is heavy yet fitting. The flute also kicks in to create this albums most beautiful song. The chorus is just like Cadence And Cascade in that it is so great that I just get amazed every time. After more beautiful vocals, Libra's Theme kicks in, which is the middle section of the song. It is amazing, and the mellotron is really put in the light here. With dashing chords, it plays together with Michael Giles' almost emotional drumming, and on top of it all Fripp's amazing guitar work. Again, the chorus comes in an instrumental way, and that doesn't make it worse. The mellotron delivers some of the most emitional chords of this album, followed again by Greg's amazing vocals. However this time, Robert Fripp plays around with string bends, and make really awesome sounds. The song goes instrumental again, and this time even better. It ends remarkably well, with the mellotron chords fading out. Then comes...

''Peace - A Theme''. This is one of Robert Fripps most emotional pieces, trust me. Very very beautiful guitar chords, and however the song may not be to complicated, it sure does move me every time. It's a very short song however, and sometimes I wish it was longer, since it is so beautiful. Amazing song. And here comes...

''Cat Food'' is unarguably the most jazzy song on the album. I just love this piece! Absolutely mad piano, so awesome. Greg Lake screams out the vocals loud and piercing, with distortion to. The bass is loud and leads the song over some clean electric guitar played by Fripp. The vocals are quite amusing to listen to, and very clever. The crazy piano playing tops up the verses while the bass makes your speakers bounce. The chorus is awesome again, and then comes an awesome instrumental section with acoustic guitar by Fripp, still crazy piano, and then comes that great chorus again. The last verse delivers the same great vocals and end with the lines ''Don't think I am that rude if I tell you that it's cat food, not even fit for a horse'' which moves into the most bluesy guitar solo Fripp ever did, with absolutely great bends and guitar notes. It ends with the a lot of piano notes spun together fastly, and some guitar chords. This leaves place for...

''The Devil's Triangle''. To me, unarguably the best track on the album. It's one of the most chaotic pieces by King Crimson (It's actually a ''cover'' of Gustav Holst's ''Mars'', done in a Fripp fasion). It builds up slowly, with ''nice'' mellotron chords, and hypnotic drumming. This section goes up until 01.55 where a haunting mellotron chords makes way for a chaotic passage with the same hypnotizing drumming and more ghostly mellotron playing. It evolves into different chord formations and chords overall, yet maintains the overall chaos surrounding the song. It fastly spools up, and at 03.25 exactly come groundbreaking mellotron chords, even louder and more aggresive than before. The absolut best section on the track. It's chaotic, hypnotic and aggresive. Everything that symbolizes what King Crimson would become (Larks' Tongues In Aspic). Some piano also joins in, with diminished chords that add to the experience. More and more effects kick in with the mellotron rising higher and higher in key. At 05.45 it goes back to low-key mellotron, and eventually turns into an aggresive, loud and almost scary climax at 06.30. Wind noises then kick in, followed by a clock ticking slowly, then there is quite. Then, at 07.26 comes chaos again, with new mellotron chords and faster drumming than before. Various sounds kick in between the different chords that reaches a climax at 08.30, followed by strange piano noises and sounds that I can't really put my finger on. The drumming moves away from the hypnotic pattern and goes into more free-form improvisation and the piano get's more chaotic than before. The drumming get's really fast until 10.12 where all instruments play together, with the choir from In The Court of The Crimson King singing the chorus from the song In The Court of The Crimson King. It ends with slow guitar notes, at 11.39 (The longest track on the abum). And here comes the closer...

''Peace - An End'' is another shortie, however this is gold. Since it combines Greg's beautiful vocals with the stunning guitar from Peace - A Theme. Greg follows the guitar for every note, and the lyrics are beautiful. At 01.12 comes the most beautiful section of the album, to me. It's so lovely and stunning. Incredibly well played.

Thank you so much for taking interest and time in reading this review! I hope this has helped your motivation of buying this album. Thank you again.