BEAT

Beat is the second album of King Crimson's '80s line-up, and the music here is a bit different from the previous album. The great musicianship is still here, as are the obvious '80s influences. The main difference here is the abundance of pop-sounding tracks such as "Neil and Jack and Me", "Heartbeat", "Waiting Man", and "Two Hands" which give the album a cheesy sound that they managed to avoid on the previous release, and these tracks unfortunately make up most of the album. However, the remaining tracks are great examples of King Crimson's creativity in utilizing constructed noise and electronic effects intelligently.

This is an okay album with a few good tracks, but is mostly unimportant.