KING CRIMSON — Islands (review)

KING CRIMSON — Islands album cover Album · 1971 · Jazz Related Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
smartpatrol
In 1971, King Crimson reformed for a second time, adding Boz Burrell and Ian Wallace to replace Gordon Haskell and Andy McCulloch, respectively. Islands would be the only album this lineup would release. Like all other King Crimson albums, Islands is very experimental and unique. The album beings with Formenta Lady, which starts off with a slow, kind of mystifying tune, played out by double bassist Harry Miller and Mel Collins on his flute. Boz then joins in with his hautingly beautiful voice. After a verse, the song transforms into a folksy ballad for the chorus, but then goes back to the Bass-Flute section for another verse. After another chorus the song ends with the band jamming on the folksy chorus, joined by Paulina Lucas, singing a melody over the band. Next is Sailor's Tale, a great, jazzy instrumental, and then The Letters, which starts out soft, and ballad-like, but then we get a jazzy, explorative instrumental break. Then another emotionaly charged verse. Next is Ladies of the Road. Very jazzy, pretty hard, except for the chorus, which is signifgantly soft compared to the rest of the song. This is followed by Song of the Gulls, a lovely piece played by a string ensemble. The album is finished with the amazing title track, which is one of my favorite songs of all time. It is amazingly beautiful, beyond expression. I love it. It's hard to explain how great this song is. As always, Peter Sinfield's lyrics are very well written, but out of the four King Crimson albums he's written for, Islands is definetly the least exceptional. Especially Ladies of the Road, which is boarderline misogonist. So, yeah. This album has it's fair share of ups and downs. But I like it. If anything, it's extremly insteresting. 3/5
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Charles Gayle / Milford Graves / William Parker : Webo Avant-Garde Jazz
CHARLES GAYLE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Sonic Creed Volume II : Life Signs World Fusion
STEFON HARRIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
My Ship Hard Bop
WILLIE JONES III
Buy this album from MMA partners
Ice Breaking Post-Fusion Contemporary
DAG ARNESEN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lee Ritenour & Dave Grusin : Brasil Latin Jazz
LEE RITENOUR
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

GoGo Penguin - From the North - GoGo Penguin Live in Manchester
GOGO PENGUIN
js· 10 hours ago
03 Willie Jones III My Ship #NightIsAlive
WILLIE JONES III
snobb· 1 day ago
Fall
SUNNY KIM
js· 1 day ago
Twilight
RANDY SCOTT
js· 2 days ago
Trifecta - Beck and Call - official video (taken from The New Normal)
TRIFECTA
js· 3 days ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed