King Crimson “In The Wake Of Poseidon” 1970 UK original

King Crimson “In The Wake Of Poseidon” 1970 UK LP ILPS 9127 Pink 1st Press A1/B1
gatefold is VG+ has name written on front cvr top and bottom, lite edge wear, disc is nice vg++, few lite marks but very nice.

In The Court of the Crimson King will be a tough album to follow up, it’s a masterpiece after all and a prog classic so I honestly doubt that it can be followed up nor do I expect it to be ,I just want to take In the Wake of Poseidon for what it is. After listening to it all I can really say is whoa, I honestly loved this quite a lot.

These tracks are split up into these different “peace” sections and I feel like they have a purpose and a theme behind them but I ultimately didn’t really grasp the entire thing, I’m guessing thematically this is an anti-war album but I’m not fully sure. Musically In the Wake of Poseidon is a journey with some awesome material, the band do play it a bit safe and I cant help but say that it may be somewhat derivative structurally to stuff on In the Court of the Crimson King but I honestly don’t mind that as lots of the material on here is just too good not to love in my opinion. The first actual track Picture Of a City is this albums answer to 21st Century Schizoid Man, the jazz influence remains class, the sax playing is great, the percussion is oh so good, the distorted guitars were a nice touch and the bass is very nice, this track constantly switches and changed into different passages and its honestly quite exciting, the calmer improv sections were probably my favorite parts. Cadence and Cascade is a gorgeous moment, it’s psychedelic and dream like atmosphere sounds immaculate, the bare acoustics and subdued percussion matched the sweet vocals so nicely and the flute section at the end was quite beautiful. In the Wake of Poseidon is a powerful highlight with its dense atmosphere, its incredible percussion and grand strings, the dreamlike sound is just so alluring on this song. The last two tracks aren’t really as good in my opinion but they’re great nonetheless, Cat Food has a slick and addictive bassline, all over the place and messy pianos, direct fierce vocals and weird lyrics, the final actual track The Devils Triangle sounds like a march to war, its drums sound like an army band pattern and that same drum pattern is played throughout the entire song while everything else around it erupts into a cacophony of chaos with large and brooding strings and horns, the last 3 minutes is probably the most chaotic out of them all. In short I loved a lot of what is offered on this album, sure its not as good as the previous album but I feel like comparing too much to it is unfair, In the Wake of Poseidon is a stellar album that I think is a high caliber album on it’s own and its another brilliant record from King Crimson.