King Crimson: Worst to Best Albums

all right this is the video we've all been waiting for it is the King Crimson worst to best I don't think King Crimson really needs an introduction at this point outside of the fact that arguably they're the forefathers of progressive rock coming on the scene in the very late 60s and just taking the world by storm coming in with so many different musicians influencing each album putting a whole different personality on each work that they do so just a few ground rules before I start obviously everything that I say is fact there's no argument in there it's 100% objectively true you know the complete ranking is of course how we should all view the album's going forward in terms of number one being the absolute best and the last one there's garbage we shouldn't listen to it anymore some people actually believe that no this is all my personal opinion this is just my own take on each of the album's I'm not saying that number one is the definitive best album that the band has put out not saying that the one that I label as number thirteen is the definitive worst album I'm just saying that if all the album's were laid out in front of me which one would I go for last which is the one I'll be talking about first and which one would I listen to first which is the one I want to be talking about last I'm not gonna give a full detailed review of each album just gonna give a little bit of context a little bit of my own personal feelings maybe a little bit of you know what I think about the album but it's not gonna be an in-depth review I'm gonna list some highlights at least for the first half of them some weaknesses but for the most part this is just supposed to be a little bit of fun you know I'm gonna be gushing quite a bit so you know if you're in the first three roles get ready for some splashing because yeah there's gonna be a gush zone also with King Crimson they are a band to be listening to live and unfortunately I'm not gonna be talking about any of their live albums they've put out a lot of fantastic live albums and in some respects that's the way you need to listen to them I'm only going to be looking at studio releases there's 13 of them and I'm not going to be looking at a lot of the construction albums that they put out in like the 80s and 90s so with those two in mind let's dive into the worst to best King Crimson studio albums all 13 of them let's just dive in number 13 Beate released in 1982 so we come to the middle point of the three of a perfect pair suite of albums this is in the 80s when they're trying some really technical jazz math rock I'm not a big fan of this style and that's why these three albums that I'm going to be talking about first encompass that style now this one really throws back to like the beat culture of like the 30s 40s and 50s and a lot of that can be found on this album this album is a very cool album it's a sophisticated but that is not for me I don't like this kind of style what did Hamlet say less less art more matter kind of an idea in this one like there's there's a lot to be said about this album and I will put this on because there will be times in my life and like moments where I'm just like I really need that beat but I really need to be in the specific mood for that and that mood comes very very rarely for me yeah that's that's pretty much it about beat a very fun very cool album but it's it's just not for me so let's move on to the next one number twelve three of a perfect pair released in 1984 so this is the last of those three of a perfect pair trilogy of an album I like this one a little bit more than beat like that to kind of go back and forth as to which one I like better there are a few moments that I really like on three of a perfect pair and mainly the thing that I love about this one is the structure of the UM now we have the left and the right versions of this album and it's interesting too because the left side being the opening one is a little bit more light it's jazzy it's much more free-flowing it's much more of an artistic thought and then the right side is much more structured it's a little bit more math infused it's got a little bit more of the analytical side of it and if we're applying this to like the brain you know it's the right side that's more of the artistic side and the left side that's a little bit more of the analytical side so we've got that duality about it as well and I also I know this has nothing to do with the music but I really like the album cover and to me it always looked like a chromosome by you know doing research it's all about you know the male Fallis trying to penetrate the female divinity and I'm like well I think we might be reaching I mean you can definitely draw comparison to that it's a very minimalistic thing and these three albums you know started with discipline beat and three of a perfect pair very minimalistic in terms of the album structure very monochromatic in terms of like the layout I mean when the strength of this album is kind of the overall concept and presentation of the album yeah I might be stretching a little bit but that's kind of what puts it above beat like I really like the structure I love the free-flowing jazzy expressional kind of artistic side and then I like more of the analytical mathy very structured side and Tony Levin on the bass it shines through and that's one thing that really elevates this album and I mean the standout track on this one is definitely new aegis or something like that really really funky and really fun and like funky is definitely the the word of the album for this one all right let's move on to the next one number 11 discipline released in 1981 okay okay okay okay okay I know a lot of people love this album and for very good reasons this was the album that came out after the first hiatus of King Crimson and they came back with something completely different and this is the thing that elevates it very much so beyond beat and three of a perfect pair I love how jazzy how analytical how technical how strange how having guard it all is it's definitely leagues away from read the album that came out in 1974 before this album and so just that huge transition is what really elevates this for me I'm still not a big fan of the music that's found on this like the only two tracks that I really come back to are in discipline and elephant talk and even elephant talk I only really like because how strange and weird it is it's not necessarily one that I'll sit down and really gain musical pleasure out of it's more than I'll sit down and be like oh that's funky oh that's strange and you know the the knots and the interplay and the interconnections between all the musicians but I'm just not a really big fan and Adrian Belew who I really admire moving forward and his performances on a number of the album's sometimes I'm just not a big fan of his off-key singing style that was very adapted of a time like I'm not a big fan of this New Wave style yeah let's move on to the next one number ten starless and bible black released in 1974 okay so we're coming into kind of in some respects their heyday the big outpour of creativity and starless and bible black eye I always say gets overlooked because it's sandwiched between two huge goliaths of an album but at the end of the day I still love starless and bible black I love the second side I love how jazzy impressionistic and free-flowing those are I mean a lot of those snippets were taken from live recordings I love fractured fractures probably one of my favorite tracks of the band I love how proto Danny Elfman this track feels and I also love how explosive and raw the music is on this and that can be seen just because of how much of this was taken from live recordings but this album does have a lot of weaknesses there's a lot of really strange jam sessions and when you're coming in with so much experimentation not everything is gonna work out some of the songs do feel like they're I know odds and ends of other tracks that came before it like will let you know feels like it's a little bit of a leftover from fractured and the same with the title track of starless and bible black I just feel like there's very little to build upon and kind of take the music forward I also feel like we've been here before especially with some of the things that had started with larks tongue and aspect the album that came before this and I just feel like they didn't move the music forward as much as the albums previously had always done they'd always moved the music ridiculously far forward and like the mark was so far ahead yeah let's let's move on to the next one number nine in the wake of Poseidon released in 1970 so this came off the heels very quickly of in the Court of the Crimson King and it feels like they improved on things that they were doing really really well like pictures of a city being essentially a mirror of 21st century schizoid man and in the wake of a Sidon being a improvement on in the Court of the Crimson King but there are a few moments on here that just don't quite stick I mean The Devil's Triangle as a whole just I don't even know what they were doing and I don't know if they knew what they were doing and even though the two tracks I already mentioned pictures of the city and in the wake of Poseidon they do still feel very much like clones of songs that came previously now what I do like is kind of the structure of the album as well I like how they've got these little interludes throughout the album opening and closing and coming in and blossoming the album throughout so in the wake of sidon even though I loved some of the tracks off of this there's a lot to kind of shift through in order to get to those nuggets of gold so yeah that's why it's at number nine so let's talk about number eight number eight larks tongue in aspects released in 1973 okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay I'm gonna get a lot of flack for this one putting this number eight how do I rectify this well it's just um so even though there's a lot going for this album there is a lot going for this album it's the first album with Bill Bruford and Bill Bruford my favorite drummer of all time he adds this explosion and punch to so many of these different tracks like the opening track of larks tongue a nice back part one explodes was such a force that hadn't been heard before and the ending track of large tongue and aspect part two again it's it's essentially pseudo metal at that point like nothing had been that heavy and that raw and that emotive up until that point hands down this is one of the hardest hitting albums of the entire career of King Crimson I know a lot of you are wondering why I put it so high on the list really it's because it's almost too experimental and there's a lot more again it's that less art more matter kind of an idea there's not a whole lot to really hold on to outside the largest on an aspect sweets I do love exile I feel like exile is or exiles again it's very much like laments it's very heartfelt it's very emotive I also really love the jazzy approach that the talking drum has and I love the sweet how a talking drum goes straight into larger song and aspect part - yeah there's still a lot of drawbacks to this album that I just can't get my head around like it's it's a little bit unfocused it's not quite as unfocused as starless and bible black but there's no moment on this own that i enjoy as much as fractured or laments and that really lowered it easy money is kind of a weak point of the album and I know a lot of people love this track and I can understand why but I just don't feel it I don't really connect with that track all that much this album would be a lot higher on any other list but because King Crimson has put out so much amazing music up until this point there's a lot still talked about so that's why larks on a speck is as high on the list as it is yeah let's move on to the next album number seven the construction of light released in 2000 so yeah I I really really love this album funky is the word that I would use for this particular piece I love how strange I love how fun and I just love how unified this album is there's a lot of throwback on this album I mean two songs off of this are direct reworkings well not direct reworkings I mean we've got fractured which is kind of a reworking and an interpretation of the starless and bible black track as well as larks tongue in aspect part four which is probably my favorite of the larks tongue and aspect movements I love the ending part of this track it just I gosh when we get to that ending part like that's one of those like close your eyes and just head bang away - at moments and that is what really elevates this album for me but I also really really enjoy the title track of the construction of light and how really fun this is it feels like it's a vinyl throwback and the band is so much more focused like it feels like they took all those unfocused wandering the wilderness moments that were found on starless and bible black and on larkston and aspect and tighten those back up it's a very heavy and heavy hitting and punchy album that has that sophistication and jazzy approach and I love how large the sound is it's not quite as large because now we're working with the you know just the the four of them I think it is I think it's the dual because 2011 and Bill Bruford had left for this album as opposed to thrash still had the two on there there still has an explosive as sound and that's what really elevates it for me so yeah alright let's move on to the next one number six track released in 1995 the only album to be released in the 90s I really really enjoyed this album I think somebody had written that this was a monster and that is a perfect like title for this overall like each of these albums as I mentioned has like a key term and Monster is definitely the album of this I love how big the sound is like this is the duo trio of you know two drummers two bass players two guitarists all of them working in tandem and I love how on the room um tracks where you have them all unified on one track and then splitting apart within the stereo tracks very very well done and again you've got that explosiveness and this is the thing that I love that I think the 80s albums were definitely missing is the leap forward in terms of the progression of music you can definitely feel that between 84 and 95 that progression was still going on and this is like the end point of that progression and so it feels like there's no wasted space off of this um everything is kind of put down exactly where you want to and I love the rhythm I love the flow of this um the rhythm of this album is just so media and again Bill Bruford and Tony Levin just shines so hard on this I love dinosaur I love the track dinosaur it hits so hard and I love how funky it is I really like also the variations of tracks off of this one time and walking on air our throwback to more of those mellower aspects and I think in crimson doesn't get enough call out of there more mellow tracks things that we found on Islands or in the carrying cord the Crimson King where it's very somber it's very emotive and it's interesting because I can't really put my finger on any real weaknesses but everything does kind of blend together and outside of say dinosaur there's no one track that really stands out for me and that also includes the room suites right you got room and from room and the room room coda and all those other ones this album is a journey and there's no one particular moment that really stands outside a dinosaur and I think maybe that kind of put it where it is on its list so yeah all right let's move on to the next one number five lizard released in 1970 okay so if in the wake of Poseidon was too similar to in the Court of the Crimson King then this one is as far away as you can get and their third album really shows how progressive the band can be this is almost very much like a Renaissance style like a lot of this are like medieval very knights and Dragons I mean the title track of lizard the twenty-minute suite is essentially a battle between Prince Rupert and the dragon and I also love how each of these songs are a little story like this is one of those albums where I can listen to the entire thing and not feel like there's a moment that's wasted on it and lizard the title track that big 20-minute sweep has one of the most beautiful moments ever recorded in musical history and it's with the clarinet and that jazzy sequence that just makes me melt every time I listen to it it's so well realized that I just like French kisses everyone just what what what but even this it's still a lot of fun they have some of those moments like happy family and indoor games that are very fun very jovial but still have that punch Serkis the opening track of this when we get into that synthesizer that's plane the first time that I heard this it felt like my face was melting it was just like that [Music] like it just hit me so hard I'm like what is dish it's very meaty very impactful but it doesn't just stay in that camp it then dum blends through and goes on to a little bit of a different game so yeah lizard is a fantastic treat and one that I always go back to it's one of the more quirky albums and that's you know if Renaissance or quirky or the title like little Nomar of this that's where I'd put it so yeah that's about it for lizard very very fun let's go on to the next one number four the power to believe released in 2003 the final album from King Crimson at least on this list in terms of chronological released in 2003 this was the one that I had probably the most amount of time with I got this back in high school and I just fell in love so many amazing tracks office level five which is essentially the final piece the larks tongue and aspect which is why it's called level five it's the fifth part of that sweet dangerous curves being this building building like I love the build of dangerous curves it becomes this monster and I also really really love be happy with what you have to be happy with it's just so fun it's so catchy it's so like you almost want to dance around with it and I also really love open your eyes I love how sombre this track can be at times how fun and jazzy it is I can't believe sometimes what I'm listening to with this album it's so good and deceivingly good as well it feels like they've took everything that they've learned within track and within the construction series and the projects series and really unified and put it on this album I can see that Robert Fripp would be more proud of this then the construction of light alright so let's go on to number three number three read released in 1974 this is an interesting album cuz this is probably one of the most accessible albums that the band has ever really put out like it's got some singles on there like fallen angel and one more red nightmare the final track of starless is a staple now it's probably my favorite King Crimson track especially coming off the heels of larks tongue and aspect and starless and bible black it's interesting to see that they've left so much of the explosive jazzy really experimental side and really hunkered down and focused in on accessible digestible tracks and I think this works in its ultimate favor but on the other hand there's an ocean to dive into in terms of creativity the title track of red being so harsh and so now I mean if I do have to point out weaknesses that first track off of the second side got to be in a certain mindset of because it is one of those very impressionistic very emotive like wandering the wilderness kind of thing where you're kind of finding out where the music is it's not to the extent of say like moon child from in the core of the Crimson King but it does have that flavor of it and I'm wondering if it really worked completely I think it works better than moon child but it still has that really fun aspect and I love how it builds straight into starless so yeah this is one of my favorite albums of all time this is one that I will put on it's a very evening album all right we're coming down to the final two once I release what number two is you'll automatically know what number one is just through processes of elimination so let's talk about number two first number two [Music] Islands released in 1971 I love love love love love this album it is so freakin good it is one of the most unique albums it is the most like somber pastoral intimate albums that King Crimson has ever done you have to be in the right mood for this album as well like if you're not in the right mood don't even try but if you're in that right move this L is just the perfect treat there's no low point and the explosiveness of this album is very similar to being like lost at sea we're at points it is so beautiful and so somber and you've got nothing but air around you but other times it's terrifying you're caught up in a storm it's explosive uh the opening track and the opening sweet of this just moves so many different aspects it's it's akin to like a symphony and that's not including like all the different strings that we have on here that's not including all the different instruments that we have it's really saying so much within this ohm and what I love is just laying it wash over me and again pardon the pun but letting those waves just wash over me and take me to all those different places it it really is like being lost at sea in the most terrifying but also in the most enjoyable aspect of that and I can't help but love it this is a perfect example of what progressive rock should be there's no album that came before it there's no album that came after it that eggs pretty much like this and like that last track off this album so deceivingly heart-wrenching like you don't realise how impactful it is because it's not a very big song like a lot of the other tracks that King Crimson has done but it's just as impactful as any of those big explosive tracks are so yeah that's why I really really love this track and why I think so many people really need to go out and listen to islands so that leaves us with number one this is the the final one and I mean it really should be no surprise of what it is like you knew what it was coming into this this video so let's just talk about it let's talk about number one number one in the Court of the Crimson King released in 1969 yep yeah I mean it this is one of those albums and one of those moments where it's like how could this not be number one often imitated but never recaptured even by the band themselves like I believe Robert Fripp's says that the the spirit of genius or the spirit of like a masterpiece will come and is it a band and in this sense it it definitely visited the band for this album but it was never able to recapture I mean if most people know at King Crimson album this is gonna be the album that they know this has epitaph this has I talked to the wind this has 21st century schizoid man this has in the Court of the Crimson King like these are the ones that people come back to and it is their most popular works and I think the thing that I love about this album so much is how different it is from everything else like even though 21st century schizoid man has that explosive tendencies and that really big jazzy approach it's those smaller moments that people love at least that's the reason why I love it I love I talk to the wind I love epitaph and I love in the core of the Crimson King the title track of this album this one still makes me weak this one still makes me gush and this is one of the album's that really really got me into progressive rock like I got this back in high school and I just fell so hard for this album and it has treated me so well throughout my life and I'll still come back to it and still get more and more and more out of it so yeah yeah that's about it that's it for all the studio albums from King Crimson were ranked from worst to best in my opinion what do you guys think what's your favorite King Crimson album what is your least favorite of which is one that you think gets overlooked too much in my mind the ones that got overlooked our power to believe Islands and lizard but I also really loved construction of light and track so let me know of your own thoughts about King Crimson and their albums and what your ranking would be by commenting down below thank you guys so much for watching this was a blast to do and I've been holding off doing this for a while for a special time and I feel like right now is the perfect time for this kind of a video so there you go my gift to you ah it's finally done oh boy thank you guys so much for watching as always you guys are definitely the best and until next time know [Music] [Music]

Channel: Notes Reviews

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Id: NCqgjzb89MI

Length: 26min 21sec (1581 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 03 2020