KING CRIMSON — Starless And Bible Black (review)

KING CRIMSON — Starless And Bible Black album cover Album · 1974 · Jazz Related Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Sean Trane
Sunless And Babe's Bumpland

Hot on the heels of Lark's Tongue, the band started touring, and despite losing quickly Muir, they chose to go on as a quartet and when the came back to the studio to record this SABB album, they'd grown into a very tight quartet. Of course Muir's exciting percussions and noises are missing into this album, and the very bland artwork and probably some lesser worked-upon songwriting make this album quite a deception compared to Lark.

This one sounds sloppy to me, unfinished studio tapes and weird song endings. Although I see this mostly on the first side of the album I realize that I must be one of the only one to think that way but try the "Aspic" or "Red" albums as they represent the best of this line-up. Strange song structures such as Lament or un-interesting writing as trio makes that much is lost on me in the first side. Even the more conventional songs like Nightwatch and Great Deceiver appear a little weak and would be fillers on either album preceding or following SABB.

The two instrumental on the flipside are a bit unstructured to my liking, but they tend to be the best tracks of the album, solid energetic and crunchy. The instrumental numbers on Aspic were so much more interesting and riveting. Still much worth a spin, though! And as a Crimson fan, it's relatively inconceivable not having this album in your shelves, even if it is the poorest Crimson studio album of the 70's
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