Album of the Day

Starless and Bible Black, by King Crimson (1974): For a long time, the only "old" (pre-Belew) Crimson I really enjoyed were the bookends of In the Court of the Crimson King and Red. The other albums I heard just didn't jive with me. Starless . . . was one of them, with many of its improved tracks leaving me cold and the rest just washing over me. Didn't reach for it a lot, I must admit. But, slowly, it has grown on me a lot. There's not a much better starter in prog (or all of rock, for that matter) than "The Great Deceiver." The other vocal tracks are fairly good as well, tho' I prefer the USA live version of "Lament." And the closure, "Fracture," is a towering slice of Frippie goodness. The rest fall somewhere between "good, but not great" and "hey, that's pretty cool!" It's still not Red, but it ain't bad, either.