2004 reissue of the band's 1971 album. Discipline label. Album Description
 |  | The humblest, most beautiful Crimson |  |
Islands stands alone among the rest of the King Crimson catalogue, which is saying something considering the many different line-ups (and differet sounds) the band has had over the decades. Does it break open new musical boundaries, like the debut? No. Is it as schizophrenic and untamed as Larks Tongues In Aspic, or as hard rocking as Red? No and no. Is it worth a listen? Yes...it is worth dozens.
Islands contains some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard. Another reviewer called it progressive chamber music, which seems about right. It is slow paced and gentle. Don't listen with the idea that it should have rocked harder, listen with appreciation for what it is.
We all know Fripp has more technical proficiency than a machine, but this album finds him taking a break from those riffs only a computer could imitate. Here he just flows with the songs; "Sailors Tale" has some nice guitar work in it especially. There is also the hauntingly serene "Prelude: Song of the Gulls", a powerful instrumental that is like a balm for your mind, and "Islands" (the closing track) swooping down like a musical blanket to tuck you into a comforting sleep.
While it has some moments of blistering rock (great ones, I might add), this is mostly a quiet, delicate listening experience. It's like a story being whispered to you instead of read aloud. As such, don't throw this on in the afternoon while doing the dishes and expect to be blown away. Music is not a commodity and cannot all be treated the same, and Islands demands a different kind of attention. This is the album you put on in late evening with a glass of wine and a view of the stars, or the album you listen to an hour before the sun rises when the whole world is silent.
5/5. If Islands pales in comparison to other King Crimson releases, then it just shines all the more brightly on its own.
October 23, 2008| | | I guess you had to be there | |
It is gratifying to me to read so many reviews of KC by people who listened to them long after the albums first came out. If you put them into a contemporary context they have to be heard alongside everything that came after. Maybe that is why so many Amazon reviews don't get it?
For those of us who first listened to ISLANDS when it first came out it is the KC masterpiece, precisely because it doesn't conform to what you would expect of a rock album. There was nothing else like it. It alternated between music in the "classical" style, pastoral folk and grinding, gritty rock. Then there is Fripp's guitar - reason enough for some of us.
I know I'm getting old when someone says in a review that "Ladies of the Road" was brash and crude. Well Yes!!! Hello? That's the point. Confronting. Don't get too comfortable. Then I guess we baby boomers were not all that politically correct.
The music. "Formentera Lady" is obviously Eastern influenced (hints of Japanese flute) and captures an Eastern stillness in a jazzy web. "Sailor's Tale" is the kind of Fripp guitar magic many of us hung in there for album after album - stunningly intellegent modulations creating mystical soundscapes. "The Letters" is an intriguing piece of musical theatre much favoured by KC which makes me think they had their own ideas about caberet - dark and confronting. "Ladies of the Road" is a bitter-sweet satire of rock band mythology and often put me in mind of Joe Cocker's encounter with the "butter queen" in MAD DOGS and Joe's wry smile - part embarressment, part respectful joy.
The rest of the album slips away into the beautifully executed classicism of "Prelude: Song of the Gulls" (evocative, nostalgic - childhood by the sea), and then the title track: "Islands" - whistful, unexpectly quiet and still, taking us to unexpected places: peacefully. And yes, Mark Charig's cornet playing is lovely.
The whole is a wonderful creation but it may seem like a confused muddle to younger ears. It always made perfect sence to me.
July 23, 2008King Crimson went on the road in 1971 for the first time in almost two years; they'd been a Robert Fripp studio project for the previous two albums, but the Crimson that recorded Islands was a BAND. Granted, the band's limitations become obvious quickly; Islands is probably the weakest King Crimson album, at least before the 90s, with snippets of good material lost in boredom. The tunes themselves aren't very good, and the band lacks the instrumental pyrotechnics to overcome that hurdle. Plus, Boz Burrell's vocals are poor qaulity. The album starts out slowly with "Fromentera Lady", but the song improves after the main melody starts. Mel Collins's saxophone and the female soprano intertwine nicely here, before the track segues into the "Sailor's Tale". This one really cooks; Collins does his best Pharoah Sanders imitation over the jazzy groove, and then Fripp comes in with a noisy, detuned-banjo type solo that needs to be heard. After almost 20 minutes, you can probably press STOP on your CD player, because the rest of the album isn't very good. "Ladies of the Road" is a tune with potential that gets a little lost (the Beatles-esque harmonies are beautiful and the raunch of Pete Sinfield's tribute to groupies is amusing -- don't see many groupies in Crimson concerts nowadays), "Prelude: Song of the Gulls" is pleasant quasi-classical filler, and "Islands" will put you to sleep with its length (nice cornet solo, though). I can't find anything good to say about "The Letters". Anyway, Islands is for completists; after touring for this album, Fripp would break up this lineup and put together a much stronger group.
[This review is based on the 2000 remaster, which sounds perfectly good to my ears.]
April 27, 2008It's difficult to fathom how there really are some Crimson fans who give Islands five stars--or even four, for that matter. Are we listening to the same album? Are you such a slave to the Master's voice (Fripp's) that your critical and aesthetic faculties are cowed into submission? Islands is, at best, a very mediocre attempt by Fripp and company to do a kind of light jazz fusion cum elevator music that can be marketed as prog rock. No doubt, Fripp himself must disown this atrocity with 35 years hindsight. Admittedly, there is one great track here ("Ladies of the Road"), which almost saves the project from oblivion. Two stars for this track but absolutely zero for everything else.
October 31, 2007 | | King Crimson's "black sheep" | |
Luis Mejia (son) - King Crimson had surely went through a musical career full of complexity, experimentation, beauty, culture and devotion at the time the infamous Islands was released, and while the album does keep all this traits, its surely their worst IN COMPARING IT within the albums from their first era. The album may lack of complex arrangements or extremely cultural and imaginative moments, but the album could have sounded better if it weren't for the convulsive lineup at the time; Boz Burrell has the voice but easy bass lines (as he was a beginer taught by Fripp), Mel Collins' saxes and flute are played along with cornet and oboe but the playing is forgetable and unremarkable, Fripp's guitar is almost muted, Peter Sinfield lyrics are the worst that I've read (and appreciated) from his works, and Ian Wallace wasn't too much of a virtuos drummer in the album. Despite, Islands still keeps the last of King Crimson's "traditional" progressive rock sound, and this is still appreciateable in the album's pieces, Islands keep a very subtle dark atmosphere and a silent, poetic, and very melodic mood; this is in part due to the memorable melodies of the songs, as you may recognize melodies from "The Letters" and "Islands". The most pivotal point of the album is that it keeps King Crimson's best use of mellotron throughout their whole career, many may have been quite confused of the truly orchestral sounds through the songs even when there wasn't an orchestra credited, and this is in fact all produced by Fripp's mellotron. "Formentera Lady" stands as a common and quiet song, which is not an original composition its roots go from previous works, but the soprano female singer gives it a fantastic touch. "Sailor's Tale" is certainly the most potent and hard song in the album, while "The Letters" may be the best song in the album, as it keeps moods that change from serene to brutal, and the song may keep a quiet and depressing atmosphere but it possess an incredible theme which gets even more incredible with the perfect verses sang by Boz Burrell, also a very poetical piece. "Ladies Of The Road" keeps a great masculine sense of humor, related to groupies and stuff, which leads to pleasent instrumentation and emotion, even Robert Fripp has stated that this song was (at that time) "the most enjoyable piece he's ever been envolved with in studio". "Prelude: Song Of The Gulls" is the most beautiful and gorgeous piece King Crimson ever wrote, its a symphonic instrumental all arranged by mellotron so if you want to hear the most perfect use of mellotron in progressive rock you must hear it, and the title track "Islands" is their second most beautiful song, featuring an outrageous piano piece and oboe touches, its a serene, very melodic and enjoyable piece (remember that the song lasts 11:51 minutes, as there is a secret piece after the music stops playing). All in all, Islands keeps, instead of remarkable album aspects, extremely high rating compositions that may surprise any previous KC listener, but despite maybe we're being too hard with this album because King Crimson is a band from wich we had always expected the most out of this world material, so we can cool down just a little bit these expectatives and just listen, sit back and enjoy the album's most beautiful mellotron in history, or the most beautiful melodies throughout their career.
August 15, 2007More reviews at Amazon.com ...
