THE COMPACT KING CRIMSON

by

King Crimson

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The instrumental geniuses who wrote, played, and sang this music -- Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, etc -- are among the foundations upon which all progressive rock rests. They created masterful works of tremendous polyrhythmic and polyharmonic complexity that continue to influence composers and performers today.

This CD gathers the best of King Crimson's work from its original and third incarnations, then masters and sequences it nicely, placing the newer songs first (from the albums Discipline, Beat, and Three of a Perfect Pair) and working backward to their roots in the late sixties (In the Court of the Crimson King). I adore the strange, cerebral juxtaposition of jagged beats and lilting melodies.

In addition to The Compact King Crimson, there exists another single-CD collection, The Concise King Crimson, which may be preferable to some. It's arranged chronologically and includes tracks from the group's second lineup: one track from the album In the Wake of Poseidon, one from Islands, and three from Red. On the other hand, it excludes several of my favorite songs ("I Talk to the Wind," "Discipline," and "Thela Hun Ginjeet") and truncates a few songs so as to fit 14 cuts on one CD. As a result, I still prefer the Compact compilaton.

If you're a bigger fan, of course, you should go for the original albums or a more comprehensive collection like The Condensed 21st Century Guide to King Crimson, which is a two-disc set. And true fanatics may decide to shell out for the complete 21st Century Guide to King Crimson, which encompasses two 4-CD box sets. Half-studio and half-live, both volumes are replete with bonus tracks.

The song selection on this collection is, to put it blunty, terrible. The back of the case reads "taken from: In the Court of the Crimson King, In the Wake of Poseidon, Red, Discipline, Three of a Perfect Pair". Sounds good, right? A pretty good overview of the band's early albums? Wrong. No songs appear from Wake or Red, so that's just false advertising right there. Only one song appears from "beat", and two from "three of a perfect pair". The album contains 4 out of the 5 songs from "In the Court of the Crimson King", and 5 out of the 7 songs on "Discipline". This is really annoying to me because i don't have the complete albums, but I don't want to buy them for the one or two songs I missed. I really don't know why they DIDN'T include anything from Red, as it is a phenomenal album.

All this may not matter to you, in which case feel free to ignore it. Personally I would have liked to know that this compilation relied so heavily on two albums.