King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)

15-02-2025

This is most definitely among my top media to heckin’ CONSOOM! It’s a perfect package that really needs no introduction being over 50 years old already. Futuristic gets thrown around a lot, but this might just be the most forward-thinking album I’ve yet to hear.

Schizoid Man is among my all-time favourite tracks. Fuck, on most days it’s my #1 song ever. The visionary Kanye West knew this, that’s why he sampled it in his best song. It’s among the heaviest songs I know of, with some of the hardest lyrics and gnarliest evil licks ever conceived. It’s a perfect opener to the album that sets an anxious frenetic tone with the GOD-TIER DRUMMING from Michael Giles (throughout the entire record but especially apparent on the opening track). It’s immediately contrasted by the other extreme in a hilarious moment when the record transitions from the cacophony at the end of 21st Century into the soft flute opening of I Talk to the Wind. Oh yeah this is where Greg Lake’s vocals have room to shine. This guy is among the greatest rock vocalists of all time, or maybe it’s a case where most of the records he performed on were bangers, in which case we can thank his agent. In any case, Lake’s vocal range and variety of styles he’s capable to pull off on this record is quite inspiring to say the least. RIP King.

I Talk to the Wind is the cool to Schizoid Man’s hot, the immediate contrast showcases the gradient of tones the band will achieve throughout the next three tracks. The wind instrumentation sets a peaceful slumbering autumnal mood and the band jams around it with killer drum fills and bass line. The arrangement is just nothing short of beautiful, thanks to Ian McDonald.

Epitaph is just a perfect track that gives me room to rant about how I got into this album. Long before I knew of rym I was browsing flowcharts and /mu/core images when that board was actually semi-decent. This was the most striking album out of them all because of the amazing artwork that encapsulates the tone of the record perfectly and succinctly. That shit look like me no keezy. Anyways I found it a challenging listen which was my goal back then, to expose myself to a wide range of challenging music in my teens so that I would have an easier time the rest of my life. It’s pretty much the only real future investment I made in myself consciously and actively. I know my taste is normie shit on rym but in the real world where people aren’t twitterbraned zoomzooms wacking it to tranny porn this album is quite esoteric still. I would like to think so, since this album feels so personal to me, still I would love more people to be exposed to this masterpiece and enjoy and relate to it as much as I do.

Anyways, Epitaph is quite the banger shifting from extremes playing with volume in an interesting way. This is where the stereo production of the album just melts your speakers and is a real benchmark for setting levels. It’s a fantastic closer with prophetic lyrics that resonate with me in the 21st Century AD. Moonchild is the great filter of the album, if you can’t get with this band of elite musicians playing of one another in a satisfying way then the Court isn’t for you. The preamble to the wonderful improvisational ambient section is an occult sounding soft tune reminiscent of the second track on a bad day. It’s truly a haunting track that leads perfectly into the extended improvisation. I think most, even those filtered by this track, would concede that the first part is pretty great, even if they’re not fans of the improv segment.

Speaking of that segment, it’s a really spacious ambient piece that evolves organically as the band members play of each other. Throwing an ambient piece in the middle of a “Rock Album” is pretty ballsy and it pays of wonderfully when the track reaches a beautiful climax and it crescendos into the phenomenal otherworldly closer, In The Court of the Crimson King. This shit just bangs, mayne. It’s not often that the transitions between the tracks play such an important role in defining the tone and ethos of the album. Much can be analyzed from this rich document of performed music. I will link a phenomenal website analyzing Peter Sinfield’s straight up good lyrics in such depth that it introduced me to many occult traditions more than it analyzed music. Definitely a great read if you have absolutely no life and are obsessed with this album. Some of that occult shit is a bit suspect though, Kaballah seems to be the mechanism by which people are deceived into worshipping things they don’t or can’t comprehend. It is definitely interesting though and there is a lot of historical background and occult traditions surrounding this album that make it so much better knowing the context. I really can’t do it justice but just trust that these guys didn’t just accidentally make this record or incorporate all the lore into it for nothing, they are making a statement on societies of today and years past. That’s why the album’s sub-title is “An Observation by King Crimson”. Oh yeah I forgot to mention just how amazingly the Mellotron is used on this album, with many iconic enchanting tones stemming from the device. It’s probably the album’s defining instrument, that or the aforementioned GOD-TIER drums. Anyways the final track is one of those perfect things I can’t really put into words, you just have to listen for yourself. Fuck this is the most useful review on this website so far, just listen to the damn music and make up your damn mind. Stop reading this shit right now, please!
Link to an archive of Pete Sinfield's website Here