Larks Tongue in Aspect
This is the absolute peak of King Crimson. In 1972 King Crimson (the Peter Sinfield era) completely dissintegrated after a disasterous tour that produced the subpar live album Earthbound. Many believed this to be the end of King Crimson. However this was not the case a year later Larks Tongues in Aspic was released to the world and what an album it is. Completely departing from Crimsons former somber symphonic style, Lark's is an avant garde masterpiece that is absolutely drenched in darkness as well as beauty. Kicking off with the blueprint to every extended instrumental King Crimson has done since is LTIA part 1. This song show Fripps new found approach to songwriting, slowly building tension that ends with an explosive climax. The entire song is a roller coaster of sounds ranging from David Cross's beautiful(and more than a little sinister) violin soloes to Fripps Sabbathesque guitar passages, this song is more than a little strange. Even stranger is the fact that the song is followed up by a short ballad(Book Of Saturdays) that is the complete musical oppisite of the opening song. Exiles follows and is the second best song off the album. This song like the last song is a wonderful ballad driven by violin, mellotron, and Fripps acoustic guitar. John Wetton does a great job with the vocals. Easy Money is a fantastic rocker loaded with distortion and a great solo from Fripp. The Talking Drum is pretty much just an extended intro for the final song on the album but its a great build up. The closing song is LTIA part 2 which in my humble opinion is King Crimsons best instrumental. Alternating between heavy distorted passages and an absolutely awe inspiring interlude, this song is the reason i bought the album.
The musicianship on this album is top notch with all the players being virtuoso's at their instruments you would not expect the playing to be as tight as it is as tight as it is but in fact for an album that was part improvised this is some of the tightest group interplay I have ever heard. Wetton also does a great job at singing in the very few spots on this album that have vocals. Overall this is one of the greatest albums ever made and deserves to be in any serious music collection. This album is the very definition of Progressive.
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