Lizard

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Customer reviews

review by: Progdave date: 2007-08-25 rating:
Better than i remember
When this came out i remember being really dissappointed. After all, there was no Greg Lake vocal, no Ian McDonald flute/keyboards and most importantly songwriting skills and also none of the brilliant drumming of Michael Giles which so characterised In The Court of The Crimson King.
So revisiting the re-mastered 30th Anniversary cd today , i am pleasantly surprised to note that the third album is actually quite good and certainly has some good moments. Cirkus and Lady of the Dancing Water stand out as being the most accessible tracks. Mel Collins flute playing is sublime throughtout - as is Fripp's guitar work.
This is still predominantly a songs album - the free-form jazz was to come later. Whilst not as strong as In The court of the Crimson King - its not a bad album and I am glad i bought it (at last)
Having said that - if anyone has'nt heard it, the brilliant McDonald and Giles album tantalisingly points to the direction Crimson might have gone in, if Ian McDonald and Michael Giles remained in the band

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review by: date: 2007-05-07 rating:
Beguiling masterpiece
Gordon Haskells vocals on Cirkus is one of the many high points to this brilliant album. also the brass instruments that gives cirkus an almost sinister feel, but mainly down the lines of bizarre, remarkable, intriguing, peculiar, odd, strange, and unusual. Would you go to this Circus?

This album does have a jazz feel, but at times a northern brass band feel. So it doesn't disappear too far into that annoying free form stuff. The ending of Indoor Games is quiet disturbing and it might be the first time He-Hoy has been heard on record. Years ahead of it's time.

Then you have the brilliant Jon Anderson singing away with the baleful and ominous King Crimson supplying the darkest mood. Never knew that drums could sound so threatening and intimidating, and the haunting trumpet.

I think this album might be the poorer relation to the In The Court Of The Crimson King, but in many ways has so much more to offer. Granted it is not as easy accessible as the ITCOTCK, so it might need the odd play. But the song Lady Of The Dancing Water is so moving and enchanting. The flute playing is so good that it could put James Galway to shame. The voice is great, the whole package is Arthurian in nature.

Just buy it, close the curtains and open your mind and find out what you have been missing all these years. Be afraid, be very afraid at times.........

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review by: Nomates date: 2007-01-29 rating:
Crimson at their Best???
I think not. This does not match "Court" or "Posiedon" for either lyric or musical composition. I was truly disappointed when I bought and listened to this. The best thing about it is the cover!

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review by: allanm date: 2006-11-17 rating:
finest half hour
A band to admire in all their incarnations, although not always easy to like, this album - or rather Side 2 - is my favourite Crimson piece (beating off stiff competition from the 1st 2 albums, Larks Tongues I and II, Sleepless, Starless, Fracture and many more).

The title cut, taking up the whole of "side two", is very unlike anything they did before or since, but superbly written and played. Jon Anderson's vocal paints a Lord of the Rings-y picture, before a jazz bolero takes us into a series of moods. The guitar and fuzztoned wibbling take a back seat to a modern jazz lineup until near the end when a fantastic weaving solo, pre-echoing No Pussyfooting (and Blondie's Fade Away and Radiate), builds over an irregular bass thump. The Man.

Not sure where this sits in Fripp's view of things - for the Great Deceiver box set he replaced Gordon Haskell's vocal and bass on Cadence and Cascade with Belew and Levin, so I wondered if he might have some revisionist approach to the whole Haskell era. But a desirable replacement for worn-out vinyl for me.


review by: catchthenextwave date: 2005-03-10 rating:
One of the Best Concept Albums Ever Made
This is an amazing album, which on first hearing irritates the ear and alienates the listener. Listen to it again and again and I guarantee you that you will end up loving this seamless classic. The way the music flows and builds is a tour de force of genius. There are no 'errors' in the whole piece. In my book this is one of the best concept albums ever made. Sadly overlooked by most people.

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