BEAT

The brand new style of King Crimson was accepted and enjoyed by most fans, despite its weirdness, with Discipline. Its successor, however, entitled Beat, didn't have the same luck. Why? Well, it's quite the typical musical event in which a band releases a completely fresh album and the follow-up is expected to be better or simply different in a good way, though for the majority, this second release ends up being a disappointment since it pales in comparison with it's predecessor. Well, I usually don't tend to be in the majority in those cases, I've always enjoyed In the Wake of Poseidon and Starless & Bible Black, two albums that had the same destiny as Beat. This time however, Beat really doesn't do it for me.

While I find In the Wake of Poseidon and Starless & Bible Black to still have interesting and memorable compositions to offer, Beat just seems to be too similar to its predecessor stylistically, though the compositions are rather uninspired and the pop tendencies are not for better, yeah almost the same words that are to describe the previous albums I mentioned.

Like I said in my review of Discipline, I'm not really a fan of the freaky style that King Crimson developed through the 80s, but with that album they still managed to make it very enjoyable thus I gave it 4 stars, and besides it was damn original. However, Beat offers mostly the same and not in a great or fun way, thus 2 stars.

Recommended if you really are a fan of the style of music featured in Discipline. However for the rest of us, including those who like Discipline but it's not their usual cup-of-tea, this is easily something you can live without. Solid and bizarre 80s album though, which also may be of great interest for 80s fans.

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