THREE OF A PERFECT PAIR

"Three of a Perfect Pair" (1984) puts an end to King Crimson's trilogy of eighties albums, with a proposal that, although it is nourished by the reigning new wave of that time, pop touches and influences of the calm gamelan (Indonesian orchestral style), just like its predecessors "Discipline" and "Beat", it is the tireless experimental restlessness that Robert Fripp carries in his veins that has the greatest emphasis in the work.

The very rhythmic "Three of a Perfect Pair" kicks off the first part of the album (called "Left Side"), with a neat set of guitars by the Fripp/Belew duo and a development sustained by the solid base that Tony Levin's bass and Bill Bruford's percussions build, and continues with Belew's particular vocal style in the catchy "Model Man" and the lively "Man With an Open Heart", both lightly digested pieces with a marked influence of the Talking Heads (of which the singer was a member), and with Levin's overflowing "Chapman Stick" that guides the anxious and unveiled "Sleepless" in complicity again with Bruford on percussion.

And it is from the atmospheric and instrumentally introspective "Nuages (That Which Passes, Passes Like Clouds)", the last piece of the "Left Side", that King Crimson indulges in sonic experimentation and encompasses the entire "Right Side", from the schizoid arguments of the intriguing "Industry" and its persistent and infinite bass and percussion notes, passing through the funky dissonance of the chaotic "Dig Me", or the strange "No Warning" that allows Bruford to shine on percussion along with some wandering keyboard layers, to the closing with the unexpected Part 3 of 1974's "Larks' Tongues in Aspic", the most progressive piece of the album with some very accomplished guitar passages by Fripp before fading into a tired melody and bringing the album to an end.

After the release of "Three of a Perfect Pair", their tenth album, King Crimson went back into hibernation until the release of a new studio album eleven years later.

Good

3/3.5 stars