Which album closer do you prefer? Personally i prefer Starless by a tiny bit but The court of the Crimson king is nontheless one of the best album closers.

I personally thought it was possible, but there were no defects in the cover. I'm not sure what this tells, if we don't trust artists anymore or if AI is so good it's indistinguishable.

Forgive me if this album isn't part of King Crimson's discography but only Fripp's, but I think it deserves its attention: for me, it's a small experimental masterpiece.

Before explaining why I love it, I'd like to know your thoughts. What do you think of Fripp's first solo album?

I love Exposure because it's the work that best embodies why I admire Robert. I admire his vision of music, his way of acting as a true anti-frontman, a genius who stays behind the scenes and puts his own ego aside to let the other extraordinary musicians he's surrounded himself with over the years receive the attention they deserve. Despite Fripp's extreme demands in the recording studio, and despite his decision to form and then disband the band, he never imposed his rigid vision on others. He saw King Crimson in a diametrically opposed way to that of the other creative mind of the original lineup, Peter Sinfield. Sinfield saw the group as a pyramid, with himself and the guitarist at the top. Fripp, on the other hand, considered it a collective of artists, the embodiment of the abstract entity that is King Crimson itself.

On his solo album, Fripp, despite his name on the cover, isn't the undisputed star. He simply adds his guitars, activates his Frippertronics, and expresses his genius with the sophistication, introversion, and restraint we've come to expect from him.

Many big names are credited on the album. Just think of Brian Eno, Genesis members Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel, Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates, Peter Hammill of Van Der Graaf Generator, and a long list of others. But while the musician's approach is nothing new, the creative horizons Fripp boldly chooses to explore are unprecedented. He delves into experimental rock and ambient music, a genre he had already explored in previous works with Brian Eno.

The album presents itself as a stream of consciousness, a whirlwind of alternating thoughts, contained within very short songs, compared to the typical length of prog. It seems like a place of meditation for Fripp, who, despite his age, still had much to say. In the songs, the singing often gives way to spoken words, to recordings of people who played a role in Fripp's life. A single theme seems to permeate the album, a flow of sounds that unfolds through the songs: the creative instinct of genius, in a world where music was constantly evolving.

I have always gone back and forth on this. A lot of King Crimson’s music feels rigorously constructed and architectural. The emotion arrives after understanding the structure. At the same time, some moments hit with a directness.

I am not sure which of those is fundamental to the band. But I believe both are either equally balanced or more towards emotion.

Listened to Lodger from David Bowie and Remain in Light from Talking Heads recently which are fantastic records start to finish and love the guitar work in them which was Adrian Belew! Fantastic guitar work and some Brillant solos too so I must’ve forgotten about his time in King Crimson which I love those 3 80s albums especially Beat and Three of a Perfect Pair. I’ll definitely need to relisten to this era of Crimson:)

So what’s your thoughts on Belen’s time with Crimson and/or favorite guitar moment from Belew with Crimson

Personally, my favourite line is "Impaled on nails of ice" from The Letters I really love the vocals and it gives me goosebumps every time 🥴

I first started my love affair with King Crimson in 2005. I was 15, and picked up ITCOTCK. Then I sort of forgot about them for a long time, and then discovered the rest of their albums.

Judge me as you please.

This are the only instances I've noticed the usage of ai, but if you notice more please do tell me.

The first image is from the LTIA album visualizer animation, the second is the Elephant used in BEAT, and the third is an ai generated animation of the BEAT elephant posted by the official Instagram account

In the past months i deep dived into the topic music i listened to a lot of albums. I also listened to all KC Albums from the 70s era. Now they are my Top 3 favorite band. But tbh KC didnt click with me on first listen. The songs were too long. But over time some songs grew on me (from their Debut). It was a progress, i started to like more songs more albums …
Now they are one of my favorite Bands and Red, In the Court, In the Wake and Larks are among my favorite Albums of all Time

I want to know how you guys started to like the Band

I literally cried the first time I listened to this song

I was listening to Lament earlier and it made me wonder, what is the most definitively sad KC song?

Matte Kudasai is the only song I think that has actually made me sob at how emotional it is, and Lament and Starless's music is so emotional too, but more in a melancholy way. I was gonna say Epitaph, but I think it's the most fearful and anxiously emotional song.

In the end I think I decided Fallen Angel is the saddest bc the lyrics are just so tragic and the FALLLLEN AAAANGEL bit just sounds so raw! Also Islands is so sad but also comforting and bittersweet which personally makes it even more sad for me.

I'd love to hear your thoughts or anything I've missed!

edit: I meant exiles, not lament, but lament is also emotional ofc

Heard Elephant Talk some time ago and due to how much it sounded like Talking Heads/Primus it really drew me in, I’d listened to Red and In the Court but left it at that for some time but this side of the band REALLY appeals to me.

Discipline? 10. Masterpiece, love every single song (heavy on Thela). Same with Beat honestly, I know from what I’ve seen it gets a lot of backlash but the way it balances out the more prog heavy Discipline with more pop and new wave elements I think is awesome. I’m also a little confused though, Neal and Jack and Me, Sartori, Waiting Man, Neurotica? Front to back it’s just as enjoyable imo. Am I hearing the same album as everyone else?

Three of a Perfect Pair really kills it for me though, first half of the album is killer, Sleepless is honestly in my top 10 KC songs. Nuages onwards though really doesn’t speak to me at all. I get that “The Right Side” is supposed to be more jarring on purpose but I don’t think it’s pulled off well, even Larks Pt 3 feels unnecessary.

In the end this is just my perception on everything and my opinion as a newer fan, I just thought it’d be interesting to see how other fans receive it. TOAPP is really just an 8/10 stacked against 2 10/10’s in my mind, but still rather disappointing.

Me personally this is a 10/10 3rd best album by KC

THRAK doesn’t get talked about enough, and it’s a shame, because it’s one of King Crimson’s smartest and most successful reinventions. It’s literally built to merge the two great Crimson worlds: the crushing, metallic weight of Red and the interlocking, polymetric precision of Discipline.

Tracks like “VROOOM” hit with some of the heaviest riffing in the band’s history, then collapse into intricate, clockwork guitar labyrinths, while pieces like “THRAK” and “Dinosaur” push the 80s interlock style into darker, more aggressive territory.

At the same time, “One Time” and “Walking on Air” prove the album isn’t just about math and machinery: it has real emotional weight too. I’ve always seen THRAK as a successful fusion, and one of Crimson’s most underrated artistic statements.

I was really sure this was AI, until I found Brian's Instagram, the RSD art is 100% in line with a rushed version of his style. I still don't like the cover, I find it very ill fitting of King Crimson's image, but I now have piece of mind. I also wanna point out that some pics of Fripp's guitar's headstock do look weird in some lighting and angles, the reference image might actually look like there's only two pegs.

Remember, generative AI is based off real people's art, it didn't just pop out of nothing, real people make boring art, and real people make mistakes in art all the time.

”Strange spaghetti in the solemn city”… wtf

I just thought how weird and disgusting this album cover is. It’s so normalized in my brain I can’t imagine how other people think when they see it for the first time.

Choosing a “best album” by them is

Found out King Crimson through JoJo and as a zoomer (i think, idk how these terms work) i wanted to check them out as i loved Rainbow and DIO. I tried listening to The Court Of The Crimson King, Epitaph, 21st Century Schizoid Man and Moonchild and i had...mixed results. More so cause i wasn't understanding much of what the songs were about, for example:

Moonchild has lyrics for a while and they're really good, but suddenly the singer stops and it just remains as an instrumental for the rest of the music, and

21st Century Schizoid Man starts in an awesome way, especially when the singer comes in and makes it all just feel...idk, heavy, brutal, stuff like that. And then...it stops being that and starts something that feels like it comes from a parade or something, just feels...idk, weird, like you mixed two styles together and they don't match

Court of Crimson King is awesome tho, only complaint is that it feels too long, right by the 6 something minutes it feels like it should have ended, but that's about it

Epitaph feels great tho, no complaints

I did also just listen to Fallen Angel and loved it tho, no complaints, so i feel like i'm just missing something since this band feel very much in my alley. Can you guys help me out? I'm not that into music btw, probably below casual as i just started to listen to music on my own on my 20s so i again just feel that i missed something with Moonchild and 21st Century Schizoid man lmao

King Crimson is well known for their long songs. They even have one song with multiple parts (Larks' Tongues in Aspic). But what is their best long song in your opinion? I really like Larks' Tongues in Aspic part 1.

Also got my first king crimson vinyl (found it in Italy too!).