KING CRIMSON — Lizard (review)

KING CRIMSON — Lizard album cover Album · 1970 · Proto-Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"Lizard" is the third full-length studio album by UK progressive rock act King Crimson. The album was released through Island Records (UK) and Atlantic Records (US) in December 1970. It´s the successor to "In The Wake Of Poseidon" from May 1970, and as the band released their debut album "In the Court of the Crimson King" in October 1969, "Lizard" is the third album released by King Crimson in just little over a year. Considering the instability of the early King Crimson lineup that´s actually quite an achivement.

Guitarist Robert Fripp is the only remaining member of the lineup who recorded "In The Wake Of Poseidon (1970)", although lyricist/producer Peter Sinfield and bassist/vocalist Gordon Haskell, were also to a degree involved in the recording of the predecessor (the former more than the latter). Mel Collins (saxophone, flute), who did session work on "In The Wake Of Poseidon (1970)" has become a permanent member of the lineup on "Lizard", so the only truly new member is actually drummer Andy McCulloch.

While "In The Wake Of Poseidon" (1970) in many ways is a similar sounding album to "In the Court of the Crimson King" (1969), "Lizard" shows a lot more progression of King Crimson´s sound. Their will to experiment and incorporate quirky moments are audible here (Fripp´s time with Giles, Giles and Fripp shines through a couple of times, when the band are most positive and silly), and "Lizard" is overall a highly progressive and varied rock album.

"Lizard" opens with the trio of tracks "Cirkus", "Indoor Games", and "Happy Family", which are all experimental and progressive rock tracks of a high caliber. "Lady Of The Dancing Water" is a mellow and atmospheric ballad type progressive folk rock track featuring flute (and some brass too). The 23:22 minutes long title track closes the album and it´s a track featuring many great sections, but also many simplistic (often sounding improvised) experimental/avant-garde sections, which aren´t really that interesting. The first six minutes are brilliant and again from the thirteenth minute of the song the band plays a dark and heavy section, which works really well, but overall I´d say at least half of the song features sections which don´t make my blood boil. It´s worth noting that Jon Anderson from Yes sings on the title track and his distinct sounding voice as always lifts anything he touches to a higher state.

"Lizard" features a well sounding production job, and overall it´s arguably a high quality progressive rock release, but the longer sections of the title track, which feels like they go nowhere, and the relatively unremarkable "Lady Of The Dancing Water" do drag my rating down. On the other hand I can listen to that opening trio of tracks all day, every day. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.
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