THE ABBREVIATED KING CRIMSON: HEARTBEAT

My review will be also abbreviated!

Yesterday`s afternoon i went to a friend`s house, and between his albums and toys and photos i dont know, i found this Crimson album, which actually is an EP, and which i haven`t listened since last year (at least), it was such a nice surprise to me, not for the music, but because to find this EP in my friend`s collection, i don`t know where did he find it, but anyways after listened to it yesterday i have decided to give you my opinion about it, here`s my abbreviated review.

You dont need to be a magician to know what the word "abbreviated" means , and it`s not a title of an album, it`s abbreviated lyterally.

Maybe starnge, maybe ridicolous, maybe funny you will find "The King Crimson Barber Shop", which is a song, well actually the members of that Crimson line up singing like a band of the 40`s with harmony vocals, nice intro, but not for newbies who are looking some great Crimson, in fact, this EP isn`t for newbies at all.

21st Century Schizoid Man and In the Court of The Crimson King, are songs that we all love and that we all know its importance in the progressive music, here both great songs are shorter than the original ones from "In the Court", im sure no one could enjoy a song that love when it`s edited and shorter.

Elephant Talk, Matte Kudassai and Heartbeat, are from the 80`s Crimson, so we can enjoy some tunes of their different eras, the same fact happens here, the songs have been edited i dont know if for commercial goals, or they didn`t have anything better to do, i dont know but this was the result, i think Heartbeat sounds better (haha) .

As you can see, this is an EP that is not recommendable, if you want these songs, you better download them or buy the Studio Albums ,this is only for that Prog / Crimson collectors who like to own strange albums, so it actually deserves 1.5 stars, i`ll give it 2.

Why? Again, I ask Why? I listened to this mostly to heart the King Crimson Barber Shop tune which begins this ep. It is actually not bad and also funny. Especially the beginning when they introduce themselves individually. After that we have (gasp!) abbreviated versions of "21st Century Schzoid Man" and "In the Court of the Crimson King". Why? My question as well. Kind of sacreligous actually. (Can't wait for the 4 minute version of Close to the Edge...should be a winner!) Any who love KC and those 2 songs would find no reason to like the shorter versions. "Elephant Talk", "Matte Kudasai" and "Heartbeat" come next. 3 songs from my least favorite Crimson era. So nothing to cheer about here. Only a true KC fan who wants to own everything they have put out would need this. And listen to the Barbershop song on YouTube or someplace similar online. 1 star. Pointless and insulting to King Crimson.