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KING CRIMSON
Happy with What You Have to be Happy With
(Sanctuary)
Reviewed by Karl Cable
As far as I know, this is the first release by King Crimson since Discipline Global Mobile ceased to be an independent record label. It's a "Preview EP" of their upcoming full-length CD "The Power To Believe," which they plan to release later this year.
In the sense that in the old vinyl days, when time constraints kept some songs off of a band's official album, there would sometimes be releases of 10" or 12" 45rpm Extended Play records with these discarded cuts, then that is probably exactly what this is. The 33 minute-long CD contains some startlingly un-Crimson-like music at times. The longer songs are bracketed and linked by a series of short pieces with Adrian Belew singing short pieces with enigmatic lyrics through a device with allows him to harmonize with himself.
The first longer piece, the title song, is definitely a head-turner. This song is truly a Heavy Metal Song instrumentally, though with some decidedly Crimso touches. They tip their hand that it's parody with the lyrics. If you remember Belew's stepping-out-of-character "These are words with a ‘D' this time" from Elephant Talk, then this song takes that little quirk to the most absurd extreme. The lyrics are about writing the lyrics to the song. My favorite part is "I'm gonna have to write a chorus/We're gonna really need a chorus/And this would seem as good as any other place to sing it till I'm blue in the face."
There's a very pretty acoustic number, "Eyes Wide Open," and I get the impression that there's an electrified version of it on the big CD. A couple of other pieces are sound tapestries that just sort of wash over you. "Mie Gakure" is made up of various soundscapes created by Belew, Robert Fripp and Trey Gunn. "Shoganai" is made up of percussive, bell-like sounds. I couldn't help but grin when I listened to "Potato Pie." Crimso plays the blues! It's kind of a 21st Century Schizoid Blues, to be sure, but there's no mistaking that this is a blues song. For good measure, and to fill out the CD, they throw in a live version of "Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Part IV)," the killer finale to their 2001 CD The ConstruKction of Light.
If the music of King Crimson excites you, and what you've read here sounds in any way tantalizing to you, then I would say that you're the sort of person who would be very happy to buy this disc. If you're just a casual fan, though, you may not be all that thrilled with it.
I'm glad I bought it.
© 2003 - Karl Cable