In the Wake of Poseidon (1970)
Okay so here's where it really kind of begins for me. After the debut there is not a single Crimson album, or track, that I've heard (shut up) so all of this will be new to me.
1. Peace – A Beginning Just a quick a capella intro, less than a minute. Not much to say about that.
2. Pictures of a City (Including 42nd at Treadmill): Very jazzy, comes in very powerfully and has a nice groove. Melody and rhythm kind of reminds me of early Sabbath to a degree. Fripp breaks out the guitar magic about three minutes in and the track takes off. Does go a little too improvisational at the end though.
3. Cadence and Cascade: No problem with this one. Lovely little gentle ballad in a kind of Moody Blues vein. Lovely piano, lovely vocal harmonies, sweet flute.
4. In the Wake of Poseidon (Including Libra's Theme): The moment that organ starts I'm in love with this song. Kind of puts me in mind of my boys VDGG, like something off H to He or maybe Aerosol Grey. Also again a very Moodies influence, or maybe that should be the other way around? Whatever. Great track anyway.
5. Peace – A Theme: Again, just a short little instrumental. Nice for what it is.
6. Catfood: I can't place my finger on it; there's just something about this I don't like. It reminds me of the worse tracks by Spock's Beard that make me unsure whether or not I will ever like them as a band. No, not into this one at all. Actually the ending is good, but that's about it.
7. The Devil's Triangle (i) Merday Morn (ii) Hand of Sceiron (iii) Garden of Worm: An eleven-and-a-half minute instrumental? This better be good. I read that it's based around Holst's “Mars” but that his estate wouldn't allow them to use it so they had to kind of disguise it. I can hear it, but had I not read that I don't think I would have made the connection. Hmm. Oh no wait: I definitely would. I hear it clearly now. Takes a while to get going, but then there's plenty of time I guess.
It's quite funny in a way: Fripp saying “so we can't use your music? Well **** you: we'll make it so close to it that it'll really piss you off without being legally actionable!” Reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Homer says “How much are we getting paid for this?” referring to the story of Bart's life, and Marge says “the producers changed it just enough so that they wouldn't have to pay us!” Heh. Loving this at the moment I must say; high point of the album.
Very cleverly done, shows real skill to skate that close to the edge (pun intended) without falling over. Like the addition of the chorus to “In the Court of the Crimson King” thrown in there. Overall, a definite ten out of ten here.
8. Peace – An End: Bit of a hippy ending with a short almost a capella piece though the acoustic guitar and the vocal harmonies that come in are nice.
Result: Nowhere near as good as the debut, though to be fair I hadn't expected it to be. To follow up such an instant classic inside a year would have been asking a lot. Still, I'm a little more underwhelmed by this than I had thought I would be. There's more on it that I don't like than I anticipated, though the good tracks do outweigh the bad. I feel it doesn't quite hold together the same way
ITCOTCK did, that it's perhaps a little disjointed? Don't know, but overall not as impressed this time round. Still good, even great, just not, for me, a classic.
Note: Key -
Really love
Love
Like
Meh
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