Review of King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King

Review of King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King

February 2023 saw us listen to King Crimson’s debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, which was released on 10 October 1969 and hit #1 on the UK charts.

We went into this with pretty high expectations being how many times we had read about this album being a major influence on bands like The Who, and cited by many rock publications as one of the best ever prog rock albums. Well… let’s just say we weren’t that wow’d and don’t really get how it has cultivated the legacy it has.

Overall we didn’t feel there was any flow to the tracks. They were rather random and didn’t form an ‘album’ in any way shape or form. Some songs felt like they could be the song used for credits in a movie, while Moonchild’s seven minutes of someone seemingly tuning and tapping instruments left us perplexed.

Overall we won’t be listening to this again, it isn’t influencing us to listen to more of their stuff, and we won’t be recommending it to others. We tried…

Is this album for you? Have a listen to our review and see how the strengths and weaknesses line up with your own impressions.