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Truly an enigmatic Yes album, dynamic and enthralling from start to finish. One of the few legendary albums from the golden age of prog rock truly worthy of an unadulterated 5-star rating. More complex and symphonic than 'Fragile', and far more concise and listenable than 'Tales'. This is Yes at their creative peak, where every musical voice is highly developed and working in harmony.

Truly inventive and exhilarating music, this is Red's looser weirder older brother.
The quartet of Fripp, Bruford, Wetton and Cross have fine-honed their collective craft from the previous year's LTIA and come into their own with some of the best Crimson ensemble playing to date. What makes this album so impressive is that the majority of the content is live and mostly extemporaneous.

Side one contains some of Crimson's most well constructed pieces like opener The Great Deceiver and impressionistic The Night Watch. Side two is where the record shows its true colors- two long instrumental pieces that combine the experimental nature of Larks Tongue with the Proto-Metal of Red, all while retaining the freedom and excitement of live performance.

One their least accessible records, but the most rewarding with multiple listens. Not a recommended starting place for the band, but an excellent addition to any serious prog collection.

Breathtaking debut album from the now-classic Renaissance lineup. While their first four studio albums are each classics in their own right, this album has a much more prominent electric guitar presence, a big plus in my book.

What continues to amaze is how fully-formed not only the tracks on this album sound but how polished the performances are from every member. Annie Haslam is typically perfect, but major props go to the harmony (and occasional lead) singing of her male counterparts.

Serving up prime cuts from his last 4 albums, Jean-Luc Ponty's Live album is a great retrospective of his classic era filled with advanced fusion instrumentals. Standout non-album track No Strings Attached is a violin showcase with plenty of effects and classic Ponty-isms to bring the crowd to roaring applause. Ponty's playing is remarkable and melodic throughout, and his backing band are nuanced and responsive. Like any Ponty LP great playing abounds, but the true star of this release are the compositions themselves, which sound even more organic and natural live then they did on previous studio releases.
A must-have for any fan of his early electric solo work, also highly recommended for the newly-initiated Ponty fan or any fan of 70's fusion.

Not only is this double LP a brilliant display of Gentle Giant's live proficiency, but also features the group's finest tracks from a string of classic albums, almost serving as a substitute greatest hits of sorts. Sound quality is excellent and the musicianship on prime cut On Reflection really needs to be heard to be believed.

An excellent introduction for those new to the band, and an exciting reminder for those who are already familiar with GG's brand of complex prog.

Often in the front-running with Court and Red as fans' favorite Crimson album, Larks' Tongues falls just a bit short for me. To be sure, this is the start of the strongest incarnation of the band who would go on to tour extensively and put out two more studio albums with roughly the same membership.

Tracks like 'Easy Money' or 'Larks' Tongues Part 2' show the band's blend of experimentation and harder rocking style that would be continued on Starless and Red. The main weak link here is Jamie Muir whose extended solo spots on the album opening and 'The Talking Drum' fail to hold my interest. The band-wide improvisation would become the basis of the following Starless and Bible Black, thankfully with the more-than-capable Bruford taking over all percussion duties.

Everyone else really does shine on this album, Fripp is more economical with his guitar work and acts as a counterbalance to Cross' interweaving melodic lines. For me the true MVP of this album is Wetton. While his distinctive "love-it-or-hate-it" (I love it) vocals are worth mentioning, his true contribution to this album's success is on bass. His playing is muscular, groovy, occasionally effect-laden and keeps the wild arrangements earthbound along with Bruford's inventive and tight playing.

While not my favorite Crimson album, definitely highly recommended to any fan of experimental or heavy music, and a harbinger of more great things to come from this lineup.

With the exception of "Betcha Thought We Couldn't Do It" (they shoudn't have) this oft-maligned record is a fine batch of fun (albeit more commercial) Giant tunes. The inspiration began slipping after Interview, but there are still plenty of salvageable slabs of head-bob inducing prog like spirited opener "Two weeks in spain" and closer "For Nobody".

Worthy addition for GG fans, if you're new to these giants of prog, start with an earlier album- masterwork Free Hand comes highly recommended.

In the Wake of Poseidon hits many of the same marks are their earlier stellar Court. The album's A side even flows in a similar manner: a rousing opener with lockstep unison riffage, followed by shorter piece of breathtaking beauty wrapping with a longer, darker epic composition heavy on the mellotron. This strength in familiarity of sound and structure is a great entry point, but also ends up being one of the album's weaker points. As strong as Poseidon is, it fails to break as much new ground as Lark's Tongues or Red, and isn't quite as astounding as the much-heralded debut.

But this album is hardly Crimson by the numbers. Intertwined with every classic trait is a surprise; take for instance the jazzy strut of Cat food or the cerebral Peace interludes. Highly recommended for any fan of ITCOTKC or early prog rock with a symphonic flair.

This album gets a bad rap simply by following the band's most fully realized fusion-era album "Romantic Warrior". While you won't find this incarnation indulging in blistering unison leads, you will hear a more jazz-oriented group fleshed out by a killer horn section and the vocals of Gayle Moran and RTF stalwart Stanley Clarke.
While the vocals and lyrics on this set of songs occiasonly lean towards the saccharine sweet, Moran proves herself an extremely competent vocalist and her multi-tracked vocal choirs add an interesting dimension to the burgeoning new sound. Stanley Clarke, while less expressive overall, is a surprisingly enjoyable addition on vocals providing and counterpoint to the otherwise ethereal vocal flourishes.
This album really doesn't read like a RTF album to me, Chick's playing and composition prowess is at the forefront, and the presence of Clarke and Moran is in a similar supporting role as many of his solo albums. Recommended to fans of Corea's Solo work, or of the early vocal-driven original RTF lineup.

If there's one word I've heard associated with this album it would be "lovely". Well, the copy I purchased had the word "stunning" printed under the price, but "lovely" seems to fit. While this album does sound lovely, it rarely sounds anything else, therein lies the problem. While just as dynamic as its predecessor or any later releases, Ashes is a bit too precious to be a true frontrunner for their best album.

These are admittedly trivial complaints, and mostly indicative of the band relinquishing their more psychedelic tendencies for folkier fare. John Camp's melodic bass work does an excellent job of keeping the tracks grounded and the production is lush and detailed. All in all, there's very little to nitpick seeing as this is a strong contender, just not a heavyweight.