In my ongoing journey through my iPod looking for ’classic albums’ we have arrived at "I" and immediately King Crimson spring to mind with their seminal 1969 release "In the court of the Crimson King".
Wow. This album still sounds vibrantly fresh today and definitely holds its own.
Opening with the tour de force that is "21st Century Schizoid Man", it still sounds as vital as it did when I first heard it.
But the album is more than this track, good though it is.
"I Talk to the Wind" is a masterpiece of melancholic wonder … deliciously downbeat with some truly amazing instrumentation. Delicate and yet so powerful.
As is "Epitaph" with it's earnest lyrics and some seriously heartbreaking instrumentation.
The abstract nature of the instrumental - "Moonchild" - is possibly the only downside. It seems out of kilter with the rest of the album somehow. It has never settled with me but doesn't take anything away from the rest of the album … especially when you consider it is the precursor to the album's title track - "In the Court of the Crimson King" - a truly magnificent journey into sound.
To dismiss this album as "prog" is to lose out of something very special indeed. I've come late to it ... but I'm glad I did eventually arrive.
Tx
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