keepers - 3
"Pictures Of A City"*****, something of a shock after the serene a capella "Peace-A Beginning", seems like a copy of
"20th Century Schizoid Man", the previous album's opener, though Pictures has a bit more swing than than 20th Century's straight head-banging. The thunderclap of guitars in each line of the chorus is at least as powerful as any in metal. The humorous "Cat Food"**** I could call 'aggressive jazz', as Keith Tippett's piano mocks and teases, only to attack in each verse line. Almost the entire album is sung by Greg Lake, who had officially left the band, but my subjective impression is that his partnership with Fripp on the title song**** puts even the best work of his next, more successful band to shame. Fripp's composition and instrumental work creates a heavy, dramatic atmosphere, which recedes to a restrained but forceful guitar bridge, and Lake delivers a soulful vocal. "The Devil's Triangle" is a slowly evolving collection of marching, menacing passages, but the remaining tracks are quiet interludes (the three parts of "Peace"), and a folky ballad ("Cadence And Cascade"). These peaceful, melodic sketches seem at odds with the choatic prog-rock (and the jazzy self-pleasuring on bonus b-side "Groon"), but they may be necessary counterpoints to keep the extreme order and disorder from being taken for granted.
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