Larks’ Tongues in Aspic

OK, I'm buckling up for Space Prog.

It was boring. I didn't need to buckle up. We were going 10mph.

I really enjoyed some bits of some of the songs.

Biggest surprise of the last 18 months doing this is how much I enjoy prog

Pre Listen:
First King Crimson album on here, and it's their worse one of the 2 most popular. I went through a brief fixation on King Crimson after listening to their 'Court of the Crimson King' album and absolutely loving it. I then went through the rest of their discography and was disappointed it never quite reached the same heights and their Court album. It's been years since I listened to this though, so looking forward to it in a way.

Notable Tracks:
Book of Saturday - Used to have this one on my playlist actually. Got rid of it because the vocals made my ears hurt after a couple of re-listens. It's alright, but could've used a few more takes on the singing.
Easy Money - Got the slurpcore samples in here. Good lord I forgot about that.
Talking Drum - That high-pitched shit at the end was so fucking stupid. Are they stupid?
Lark's Tounges in Aspic Pt. 1 & 2 - The instrumentals of this album are the band at it's best and worst. It's got the most solid guitar licks, fierce percussion, wild psychedelic sound, and overall musical creativity within it. At the same time, these songs are filled with random nonsense, lack a truly coherent structure, and feel more like an art project than anything else. Frustrating!

Post Listen:
This album is so frustratingly close to greatness. For every good moment there is an equal and opposite bad moment. No single song is good, but they are full of catchy and banger moments, and moments that genuinely make your ears bleed.

Tough rate here, and I know my personal bias is certainly playing a role here, but I think there's *more* good than bad. That dark and dirty riff from Lark's Tongues Part 1 is so solid. You can tell what they were trying to cook here, it's along the same lines as Pink Floyd with a bit of a messier edge, but they just can't quite get it. I really think if they had done more takes, and had at least ONE guy in the room saying "Nah don't include this, it's awful" this really could've been as incredible as Court of the Crimson King.

Alas, it wasn't meant to be, and their band never reached quite the peak they had when they first started. 3/5

While I was a huge fan of In the Court of the Crimson King when I was a teen, I just couldn't get into any other King Crimson albums. Honestly, I really just liked the song 21st Century Schizoid Man; the rest of their discography just went right over my head.

I was disappointed in my teen self while listening to Larks’ Tongues in Aspic today because this is fantastic! It’s very experimental and avant-garde prog rock that incorporates elements of metal, jazz, and classical music. The opening and closing title tracks are the biggest stand outs, but Easy Money and the Talking Drum are also great tracks! I listened to this album three times today and I’m still itching to dig back in for more.

Say Pizza To Drugs, Say No To Yes

I hate prog. But this was really good.

remek-djelo poznato otprije i valjda stoput preslušano, no evo, stoprvi put slušam i opet uživam. vrlo vjerojatno najbolji album koji sam dobio na ovoj stranici, a ako sam se dobro upoznao s onime što mi preostaje, moguće da ga nijedan drugi neće zbaciti s toga prijestola. svima koji prvi put slušaju preporučujem da uzmu najbolje slušalice koje imaju i da fakat odluče izdvojiti četrdeset i sedam minuta za ovo.

prva stvar, trinaestominutni instrumental, služi kao neke vrste uvod u sve što možete očekivati, svojevrsni je album u malom sa svojim rasponom glasnoće, ugodađaja i instrumentalne raznolikosti. druga stvar ujedno je i najkonvencionalnija na albumu, kratka i gorko-slatka »book of saturday«, no razmjerna konvencionalnost joj nimalo ne škodi, naprotiv, jednostavna je a predivna i vjerojatno sam je najviše puta izdvojeno preslušao. »exiles« je još laganija, razvučenija i melankoličnija pjesma koja bi nekima mogla biti tzv. slow-burner i ne sjesti na prvu. drugu stvar otvara bolesno dobra »easy money«, ne mogu ni pokušati opisati zašto mi je ovo takav benger. pojedini zvukovi mogli bi odbiti slušatelje, ja sam nekako sve to prigrlio i obožavam je. preporučujem i razne inačice uživo, s ponešto izmijenjenim tekstom (o, naravno, maloljetnicama) i donekle drugačijim instrumentalima, svakako bi mogle bolje sjesti nekima kojima ne odgovara ova studijska verzija. smijeh s kraja otvara sljedeću instrmentalnu skladbu, genijalnu »the talking drum«, koja se postepeno toliko zvukovno zgušnjava i produbljuje da kulminira cviležnom eksplozijom koja nas u isti mah uvodi u možda najžešću stvar na albumu, drugi dio naslovne pjesme. ne znam kako da je opišem, jednostavno kida i služi kao izvrsno zatvaranje albuma. svi instrumentalisti su izvrsni, kombinacija može djelovati čudno (zbog violine i raznih udaraljačkih alata), ali izvrsno funkcionira. wetton je, kad pjeva, meni naprosto odličan.

na samom vrhuncu diskografije king crimsona, uz bok albumima »red« i »discipline« (koji se inače ne nalaze na originalnom popisu, ali su ih, hvala bogu, dodali korisnici na proširen popis). ukratko: obožavam, svaki put me oduševi i ne mogu dovoljno preporučiti. preslušajte!

I enjoyed this but it didn't have enough to really hook me. I do enjoy some meandering prog rock, but I still need something I can attune to.

Holy shit. I didn't think I'd find an album I liked more than A Wizard, A True Star.

I was wrong.

Holy shit.

Pretty cool, although feels long.

Es wirkt wie ein überambitionierter Bastelkeller: wilde Rhythmik, nervöse Improvisationen, viel technisches Können – aber wenig, das wirklich trägt. Zwischen perkussivem Gefrickel und scharfkantigen Riffs entsteht ein Album, das eher anstrengt als fesselt.

I catch the influence of King Crimson in some of my favorite artists but that doesn't neccessarily mean that I actually enjoy any of their work. While I appreciate the unbelievable talent that every member has on their instruments it always feels like a not very well thought out tossed salad. Yeah, yeah... thats the point.

Thing is even if the elements that actually work are spaced out and only a few seconds long those bits and peices are brilliant. I just wish they put those gems together to make one beatiful peice of jewelery instead of the equivalent of "fuck it, throw it all out there and something will stick. Once that sticks we will ignore it and go in a completely different direction."

Again, I know thats the point. It isn't supposed to fit in a neat commercially viable pile of loveliness. This as well as all of their work is interesting though. A large portion of the albums on this list don't have that going for them.

Jazz, but if it was rock

No fire witch being summoned? Then no thank you sir.

When I was in high school, I was really taken in by progressive rock. But with time, the very qualities that I once found praise-worthy have generally turned into my least favorite aspects of the genre: the show-offy-ness, the pretension, the sense that the band think they're better than me. It's doesn't make you clever to think you "get it."

But Larks' Tongues in Aspic is the exception. My high school Latin teacher recommended it to me, and I bought a CD of it the first chance I had. I found it breathtaking then, and despite the intervening years and changes of opinion, I found myself loving all the twists and turns it takes when I listened to it today. My first King Crimson album, and still my favorite.

I'm not sure it will go into heavy rotation but there were some great passages in here.

Veel gepingel en gerommel. Om een beeld te geven: Wiki meldt tussen de instrumenten dat iemand de 'verschillende gevonden voorwerpen' bespeelt. Ik heb het wel eerder geuit. Eigenlijk heb ik grote waardering als je daarmee muziek maakt die naar de achtergrond weet te zakken.

The talking drum is exemplarisch. De hoofdmelodie brengt me naar een oude Aziatische speelfilm. Daar kan ik het geluid van een irritante vlieg nog wel in plaatsen. Maar wat doet de didgeridoo-achtige lage brom daar? Toch maakt die het af.

Ik zal het niet snel nog eens opzetten. Maar vond dit geinig om eens te doorleven.

Kind of a weird King Crimson album, good in its own right. It hardly sounds like Rock, it feels like this has already moved the band out of the Prog Rock sphere into more of a weird Avantgarde and Fusion turn. Song structure is barely there and half the album is shreiking violins and other weird noise. It still has some good Rock elements though. Enjoyable enough album but it kind of requires a different pair of ears to listen to.

i like king crimson, but this one is a little too unfocused for me