Today's Belated Review

"Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With"?

A long time ago, I was an avid King Crimson fan. That's not to say I am no longer a great fan of their music; it's just that at some point I reached Crimso-Fatigue. It's really interesting. You hit a point where you just can't bear to listen to them any more even though you love them. That's a long way different to most people who simply don't like them and therefore don't listen t them; which is understandable, but from a discerning listener point of view, flat out wrong. And I mean it. If you can't like King Crimson, you understand nothing about The Power of Rock Music. Seriously.

The album that inflicted 'Crimso-Fatigue' on me was their previous offering' Construcktion In Light'. If ever there was an album full of anxiety-inducing dissonant, organised cacophany, 'CofL' was it. I think I listened to it all of ten times and felt, "You know what? These guys are going in a direction I'm not so sure I want to follow down." And so I would often gingerly pull out 'CofL', wince and put it back on the shelf. In some ways I'd rather listen to the improvised piece 'Peoria' off "Earthbound' than listen to such anxiety-inducing stuff.

So once again, my fingers were straying over the King Crimson portion of my collection and of course I found this album 'Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With' right next to 'Construcktion of Light'. I think I bought it even though I wasn't sure I wanted to go down the direction. It's an awful title for an album, but there you have it; I had a CD I'd hardly listened to. That's why I thought I'd review it.

What's Good About It
First up, it's King Crimson 'a la mode', if you get my drift. While they've always been accomplished musicians, this album has enough surprises and subtle moments to make you really notice. After the sonic-death-monkey-assaults of their 1990s albums, this one is almost delicate. It still has another stab at 'Larks Tongues in Aspic Part IV' with its customary shards of guitaristic hubris and mannerist display, but in amongst it all is a really muscular music, divorced from production fashions or styles. indeed, thee performance of 'Larks Tongues IV' is better on this album than on 'CofL'.

Why is this good you ask? It's good because it's a rare album that lets you just listen to the musicianship unfold; and unfold it does on this album. Gone are the stalwarts Bill Bruford and Tony Levin, which is not that surprising given the band history of personnel swaps. Playing in their stead are Pat Mostalleto Trey Gunn who were the left wheel of the double rhythm section featured in 'CoL' and they sound young. Welll, young-ER anyway, and what they provide is a very solid rhythm section upon which Robert Fripp and Adrian belew totally go to town upon.

Oh yes, the 'towering sheets of immensely unbeautiful music' is still there, throbbing away, but this tim you get a close up feel of the beastie that is King Crimson. In stark contrast to the digital angularity of 'CofL', there is an almost analogue rubbery resilience to the tone. Damn, don't you miss analogue sound sometimes? The compression isn't shoving icepicks into your eardrums at the high frequencies unlike the previous album. And the playing is as always superlative.

What's Bad About it
Some of these tracks are just fillers or etudes. As a fan you get used to going through the interesting (and less interesting)studies they make, but some of the lighter weight stuff would have been better just put up at iCompositions under a pseudonym. There's just not much meat to them. The tracks where the arrangement is deep and convoluted offer great value but these little 30 second segments should just be parts of another track.

The title. Did I mention how stupid this title is? Combined with the artwork, it's just depressing for its un-wittiness. They used to be witty, this band.

The cover. It's just repugnant. I know the first album featured a guy screaming in agony in close up, but it's not like it was there to make a dumb statement; it was expressing the emotion contained in 'Twenty-first Century Schizoid Man'. The cover painting on this one shows a complacent looking family, and Mommy with a lottery ticket on her lap. All of them watching television in the sad glow from the CRT. Well, it might be the job of King Crimson to point fingers at Middle Class mores, but I can't think of a more bourgeois sentiment coming from a bunch of rock stars. You get to be a touring rock musician, you've won a lottery already. Don't go judging people who otherwise have no shot. It's kind of hypocritical, guys.

There is however an audio 'cutup track' at the end which is totally Zappa-esque and delightful; it's as if they saved up all their witticism for one track and just sort of let the art department go fascist.

Other Thoughts
Why am I still listening to Crimso?
Here's the thing: There' so much to listen to on a King Crimson record. I'd forgotten. Maybe 'Construcktion of Light' was just one album that just wasn't exactly to my taste. Maybe I've still got a lot of King Crimson tolerance in me yet. Maybe I'll get 'Power to Dream' instead of just roll my eyes at it as I've been doing every time I've spotted it at Borders.