Red

By the time the reinvigorated King Crimson recorded this third offering, the band was down to Robert Fripp and the rhythm section of Bill Bruford and John Wetton. Though it wasn't known at the time, Red would be their swansong, and an album on which Fripp could proudly wrap up the Crim saga. Oddly though, Fripp invited two former members to the recording, Ian McDonald and Mel Collins; while David Cross's part came from a previously recorded improvisation. The album opens with the angular guitar riff of the title track, one certainly as memorable as "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part Two." Both "Fallen Angel" and "One More Red Nightmare" follow: two of the most cohesive and well-developed songs the band would ever produce. In fact, this side of the album presents King Crimson at their most accessible, if not their most electric. The second side, however, dives right back into improvisation. "Providence" packs just about everything improv-related from the last two albums into its short eight minutes, before the album ends with the epic "Starless." But unlike its bleak title, the song is autobiographical, incorporating many elements of each different incarnation of King Crimson throughout before ending in one last glorious refrain. But as glorious as it seemed, Fripp had enough of the music industry, touring, etc., and in September announced the band had "ceased to exist." He entered semi-retirement, only to come out of it as a "small mobile intelligent unit" towards the end of the decade. The album charted in both the UK and US (No. 45 and No. 66, respectively), as did both other studio albums from this lineup. A posthumous live document, USA, recorded on their June US tour, would see release in early 1975. Bruford and Wetton would later turn up in the prog rock supergroup U.K. with Eddie Jobson, who also contributed overdubs to the live album.