Released: 1971
Tracks: Formentera Lady; Sailor’s Tale; The Letters; Ladies of the Road; Prelude: Song of the Gulls; Islands
Best track: Formentera Lady >Sailor’s Tale
Track to skip: none
A new Crimson album and another lineup. Mel Collins is still around (yay) and Fripp adds Ian Wallace (drums, another underrated musician) and Boz Burrell on bass and vocals. Sinfield is still around to write words as well. This album was the beginning of the 2nd ‘official’ group in Crimson’s history. The previous two were only around long enough to record the respective albums and then they split or whatever. This group actually toured a few times in 71/72. Both Collins and Wallace are excellent players, but I really think they kept it simpler than they could’ve since Boz was new to playing bass (Fripp taught him how to play it prior to the sessions). Boz’s bass playing isn’t that bad considering he was a beginner. His vocals are decent, but more importantly they’re a huge improvement of Gordon Haskell’s vocals from the last album. With Wallace behind the drums, Mel Collins finally gets to show off how damn good he is. He’s a Coltrane disciple all the way and at times the music sounds like Coltrane on an off night (that’s a compliment).
The songs on here are pretty eclectic (a norm for Crimson), but I’m still not sure if they all work together. Maybe that’s the point Fripp was making. Formentera Lady is a gorgeous piece and starts the album off in a great way. Over the course of the song it starts to morph from innocent to menacing. It has a great buildup until Wallace starts to hit his ride cymbal and in a few seconds the band breaks in with the excellent Sailor’s Tale. Sailor’s Tale is an amazing song with possibly the most original and moving guitar solo ever recorded. Like my friends Ben and Matt say, it sounds like a train wreck at the end of the song. Absolutely thrilling. The first half is concluded by The Letters, which is an OK song. It incorporates most of the material from the previously unreleased (but played live) Drop In.
Ladies of the Road starts side 2 with the only Crimson song about Groupies. It’s a very bluesy song and Collins delivers the sleaziest sax solo I’ve heard; it’s great. Now comes the strange thing. After the heavy blues of Ladies, Fripp changes direction to 100% classical for the rest of the album. Song of the Gulls is Fripp’s version of an orchestral piece. It’s a nice piece, but its placement is strange. The title track finishes out the album with another classical sounding piece.
Most of the songs are really good (Letters is average) but the organization of the whole album leaves you thinking about it. It’s a very broad and diverse album and one that’s completely different from the one preceding it (and following). I absolutely love Sailor’s Tale, but something about the album as a whole doesn’t sit right. I think Fripp knew it wasn’t right either so he completely started over in ’72 with a whole new lineup that kicked the pants of everything Crimson had done before. This album really isn’t ‘transitional’, but more of an ending for the first 3 years in the life of King Crimson.
Rating: 92
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