Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: King Crimson
Label: Discipline Global Mobile
Release: 1971
Rating: 5/5
“Islands” is the most meditative and mellow album in the band’s catalog, and the one with the least electric guitar from Fripp, but it’s no less adventurous musically, as befits King Crimson. On this album, maestro Fripp focused more on arrangements than on piling up solos, although this is the very record where you can hear some of his most striking work. The two new members at the time were Boz Burrell, who replaced Gordon Haskell on vocals and bass, and Ian Wallace, who took over the drums from Andy McCulloch. Fripp taught Boz to play bass in just one week. You can hear it in his relatively simple but solid bass lines. He must have been a seriously gifted musician to hit the high standard a band like King Crimson demands in such a short time. Even though he’s the least distinctive vocalist in the band’s history, his at times esoteric and slightly “Beatles-y” voice sits nicely on this album. And he can get dramatically raspy when he wants to (a great example is “Ladies Of The Road”). Wallace, true to the King Crimson tradition of drummers, is a top-notch jazz drummer and is still one of the most respected drummers in progressive rock and jazz fusion today. And let’s not forget flutist and saxophonist Mel Collins, who shows his best moments with the band on this very album. The legendary Fripp and Sinfield partnership bore wonderful fruit one last time, in esoteric and wildly varied compositions backed by Sinfield’s brilliant, mostly metaphysical lyrics. Once again the band is joined by plenty of guest musicians who had worked with them before (keyboardist Keith Tippet & co), and they do a great job as a proper little orchestra.
Even though King Crimson never officially released a concept album (the closest was the previous record, “Lizard”, 1970), thanks to Sinfield you can once again feel a metaphysical concept tying the individual songs together, just like on the band’s previous three albums. It’s a sort of journey across unreachable islands of extraordinary light and love, where every one of us wants to go. That fits perfectly with the violet nebula on the album cover, which is really a kind of “space island” of stunning beauty. And that’s the mood of most of this album. As befits King Crimson, “Islands” once again has compositions of extreme stylistic contrasts: from jazz fusion, heavy rock and classical music all the way to blues, which the band never ventured into before or after. The band’s jazzy sound does carry over to “Islands”, but not as noticeably, and it doesn’t take up as much room as it did on the previous album, “Lizard” (1970). The arrangements on most tracks are gorgeous, and there are plenty of improvisations, which by then had become one of the band’s trademarks. And of course Fripp’s “pyrotechnic” feats on electric and acoustic guitar and the Mellotron, the indispensable instrument of the band’s early period.
The 10-plus-minute epic “Formentera Lady” opens on a slow melody built on Boz’s bass, an esoteric flute solo from Collins, and Fripp’s acoustic guitar and Mellotron trading off in the first verse. Soon after, a jazzy rhythm line joins in on Wallace’s drums and percussion and Burrell’s bass. Before long you hear Boz’s dreamy, melancholic vocal for the first time, singing Sinfield’s metaphysical, romantic lyrics about Odysseus’s voyage and his fateful encounters with monsters and nymphs. Toward the end of the piece, this is wonderfully replaced by the operatic female backing vocals of Pauline Lucas, which build serious drama before the exit into the next track. “Formentera Lady” is a real contrast to the opening tracks of the previous albums, which were an “instant machine-gun blast between the eyes”.
The song flows without a break into the instrumental “Sailor’s Tale”, which has a phenomenal Fripp solo on electric guitar and excellent Wallace drumming that creates a superb fusion, which puts the piece among the band’s best instrumental work. A gorgeous Collins sax solo follows. Then Fripp’s phenomenal guitar solo takes the lead again, one of his best ever, laid over a brilliant rhythm line of bass and guitar. There’s a lot of improvisation inside this track, plenty of variations and interesting sounds.
“The Letters” is a proper Victorian drama, with roots in “Drop In”, which the original lineup of the band had already played live. Sinfield’s lyrics about intrigue and poisonous jealousy cut straight to the heart, and the result is the darkest piece on the album in terms of mood. It opens with a very quiet, mysterious intro and Boz’s almost whispered vocal. After that, Fripp’s guitar solo briefly electrifies the whole atmosphere, together with a crazy Collins sax solo. Then Boz’s quiet and furious verses alternate, accompanying the central melody of the piece. That enraged line of his, “Impaled on nails of ice”, near the end of the song really freezes the blood in your veins.
“Ladies Of the Road”, without a doubt one of the best pieces on the album and a band classic, has wonderful, Beatles-style parts in the backing vocals and is the bluesiest composition they ever made. This one also opens quietly, on a slow, laid-back rhythm, and then a sax solo, a rhythmic bass and a riff on the drums properly heat up the whole room. Fripp’s guitar solo follows, along with Beatles-style backing vocals in the chorus that just kill you on first listen. We’re used to Sinfield’s deep, metaphysical lyrics that most people find hard to follow, but here he made an exception, let off some steam and wrote an extremely witty and mocking lyric about groupies. A seriously sexual lyric, no question, and miles away from the band’s usual standards. The end of the song is a real flood of improvisation, with raging Collins sax solos, Fripp’s guitar “pyrotechnics” and Boz’s completely unhinged “bluesy” vocal to close it out.
The next track, the orchestral instrumental “Prelude: Song Of The Gulls”, is probably one of the best compositions the band ever created, and at the same time a completely classical piece, the likes of which they never made before or after. Its roots actually go back to before the band even existed. It has a gorgeous, beautiful flute solo and percussion. Not to mention Fripp’s wonderful guitar arrangements. The piece is stunningly beautiful and a huge contrast to the improvisations that dominate most of the album. It’s also yet another proof of the band’s incredible musical range, able to effortlessly compose majestic orchestral arrangements one moment and sharpen heavy guitar riffs the next.
The title track, the esoteric-melancholic, 10-minute epic ballad “Islands”, is a wonderful metaphysical journey across the galaxy and one of the most beautiful pieces they ever made. It has a brilliant opening section with a gorgeous combination of almost angelic singing, piano and flute. Boz’s singing is especially radiant here and proves his hidden vocal talents. He’s joined by Tippet’s brilliant piano and a Collins sax solo that this time doesn’t go wild but faithfully follows the central melody of the piece. As you listen, you can also marvel at some beautiful Fripp parts on the Mellotron. All of this is followed by another gorgeous verse with brilliant flute and piano arrangements. Plus brilliant sax, some synthesizers and Mark Charig’s brilliant cornet. The layered, repeating solos are gorgeous and deeply melancholic. “Islands” is without a doubt one of the band’s brightest and most beautiful compositions, as the layered horizons of the unreachable nebulae of the galaxy unfold while you listen. After the piece ends, following a long pause, somewhere around the tenth minute, you can hear a short snippet from the studio and Fripp’s instructions during a rehearsal run, probably before this album’s recording began.
“Islands” is a masterpiece that was grotesquely overlooked when it came out and remains one of their most underrated albums, still waiting for the recognition it deserves. The beauty of this masterpiece lies precisely in its gorgeous, esoteric, magical atmosphere and its heavenly compositions, the result of the mastery of the top-class musicians themselves and a perfect fusion of the best musical ingredients. On top of that, it’s all played with the heart and soul that only the greatest bands have. After the tour for this album, Fripp thoroughly reorganized the lineup and replaced all the band’s members of the time, with Sinfield at the head of the list. That was one of the few wrong decisions Fripp made back then. After Sinfield’s departure, the band never again managed to match the quality of his lyrics, or the mystical atmosphere that, thanks to his poetry, defined their first four albums. “Islands” is a masterpiece of early progressive rock and as such one of the band’s best works, regardless of the fact that the band’s following albums were breathtaking works of art with even more notorious and ambitious musicians. So join King Crimson on a wonderful journey across the islands of boundless light.
Lineup
Boz Burrell – vocals, bass guitar and choreography
Robert Fripp – guitar, Mellotron, Peter’s harmonic pedal and assorted tools
Mel Collins – flute, bass flute, saxophone and backing vocals
Ian Wallace – drums, percussion and backing vocals
Peter Sinfield – lyrics, sounds and visions
Guest musicians:
Keith Tippet – piano
Paulina Lucas – soprano
Robin Miller – oboe
Mark Charig – cornet
Harry Miller – double bass
Production
Robert Fripp & Peter Sinfield
Tracklist
1. Formentera Lady (5:20)
2. Sailor’s Tale (12:30)
3. The Letters (4:32)
4. Ladies Of The Road (5:35)
5. Prelude: Song Of The Gulls (4:15)
6. Islands (11:55)
Album length: 44:09
