IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING

I'm sure there's no need for recommending this album: you already own the vinyl album, two or more CD-masterings and a large poster in your bedroom of the album art of this prog rock masterpiece!

Even if you wouldn't like the music it's still a 5 star album as it's the landmark of prog rock. Not the best probably, but certainly the most important album of all. In the Court of the Crimson King kicked off a small decade of fruitful experimentation in rock, absorbed elements from classical music and jazz and ultimately created something that was bigger, louder and more ambitious then what rock used to be.

Granted, Crimson's album did not came out of nowhere: the Nice and many other bands had experimented with classical influences and Pink Floyd was (with Umma Gumma) even exploring deep space, but those bands where still rooted in the traditional 60's approach to rock song writing. They sure were extending the format, but did so with jamming your socks off inside the existing format. Instead, ItCotCK is something entirely new: long songs with alternating soft and loud parts that were fully composed, with crescendo's, climaxes, weird time signatures, instruments like the mellotron and so on and so on. No doubt. Progressive rock was born.

And historic relevance aside, the music is brilliant of course!