review by daniel

Many reviewers claim that this is a lame carbon copy of “In the Court of the Crimson King”, and it is hard to argue against them. At least when it comes to the first half of the album where every song (the short interludes excluded) has an ancestor on the group's previous album. “Pictures of a city” fails grossly in being “Schizoid Man II” as it completely lacks the contagious vigour of the original. Gordon Haskell, who guests as vocalist on “Cadence and Cascade”, cannot bring that song to the same heights as “I Talk to the Wind”. To Haskells defence you might add that it is not entirely his fault since the song is meaningless, with or without him. He will also improve on “Lizard”, where he replaces the departed Greg Lake. The next track is the title track and it is a fairly good attempt to rewrite “Epitaph” that might work if you haven’t heard the original. For me it works anyway, mainly due to the drumming of Michael Giles (where did he go after he left KC?). The second half of the album shows that Fripp (who obviously has taken charge of the band since McDonald left) at least tried to improve and incorporate some new ideas into the sound. “Cat Food” does in fact not sound as King Crimson at all; more like Jerry Lee Lewis going jazz. Parts of the eleven minute “The Devils Triangle” point out the direction that Fripp would head in on the next release. While slightly interesting (after the seven minute intro) the song fails to engage me and I rather listen to the title track of “Lizard”. To sum things up: This is a transitional album and you don’t need it.