King Crimson is not a band. It is a series of bands. The albums only have any semblance flow from one to the next whilst the line up remains fixed. In the Court of the Crimson King and In the Wake of Poseidon are close enough to identical twins. Then the line up changes and we have Lizard and Islands. From here on in, the albums work as individual series. Larks Tongues in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black and Red form a Trilogy, as do Discipline, Beat and Three of a perfect pair and even to a far looser extent Thrak, The ConstrucKtion of Light and The Power to Believe, with the ProjecKts/Deception of the Thrush sequence in the middle of it all somewhere.
Larks Tongues in Aspic was recorded with a completely new line up, Robert Fripp being the only consistent member between this record and the last. The sound is less Jazzy than Lizard and there is almost no trace of the psychadelia of the Greg Lake led albums. There is a more calculated jazz fusion/21st century classical feel to most of the album, in particular the opener; Larks Tongues in Aspic Part 1. The album alternates from near inaudibly quiet passages and can go to much louder passages with very little warning. This can take some adjustment and can be a surprise if you’re not expecting it.
Best tracks to me are Book of Saturday, which is a slow jazzy track with a backwards guitar solo in it. I guess if I had to pick another I’d go for Easy Money. The album is a good, but maybe not great album, especially compared to its successors: Starless and Bible Black and Red, which will be reviewed over the week individually.
As far as CD versions go, wait for the remastering/remixing campaign to be done. They have so far included the original mixes on DVD-A with the CDs, and they’ve all been pretty good so far.
Book of Saturday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZBoXTsAQ-k
Easy Money: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPdnjkM0bEo
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