A YEAR IN MUSIC: 1974
Review by: Roland Bruynesteyn
Red by King Crimson is the best album of 1974, and its relevance over 40 years later cannot be exaggerated for several reasons:
- Anything conceived by Robert Fripp is obviously bound to be interesting, possibly even more so if released under the KC brand name
- KC singlehandedly kept prog rock relevant by reinventing it, when others were starting to become silly dinosaurs, or tired rock stars, or both
- The musicianship is absolutely stunning. Technical virtuosity by itself is never enough, but it almost always helps
- As the big box The road to Red (that I’m lucky to own) shows, their playing is not just studio precision, KC 1974 was a thundering machine when playing live
- Red more or less set the template for several musical sub-genres, such as doom rock, prog metal, industrial (and even its popular spin offs like Depeche mode)
- Red not only preceded the aggressive punk attitude, it did so in a very sophisticated way, showing that you can channel your anger into music and words
- Starless and the title track are just two amazing songs…
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