March 4, 2003 - The Power To Believe

It's a triple release day! On the same day as my last release and almost three years since "The ConstruKction Of Light", King Crimson released their thirteenth album "The Power To Believe" on March 4, 2003. King Crimson continue their industrial vibes from recent albums and even turn up the heaviness at times on this album! Sounds good to me, let's check out the latest from these prog-rock legends!

The album opens with a short intro called "The Power To Believe I: A Cappella" and as the name suggests it's just Adrian Belew on vocals for this short intro. He sings in a computer-y, distorted voice and after a few lines things roll into the next song "Level Five". Belew and Robert Fripp sync up their guitars to start with Pat Mastelotto playing a cool drum beat in the background. Trey Gunn adds some cool Warr guitar (this album's version of bass) and things sound very classic King Crimson! Belew and Fripp eventually de-sync and as they do so very well they play off each other perfectly so that someone is always playing some cool guitar. This whole seven-plus minute song is instrumental and eventually Gunn's loud and cool "bass" sets the stage nicely for an offbeat guitar solo by Fripp that is also very reminiscent of some older, classic Crimson! I thought they did a solid job on this one for sure! Track 3 is "Eyes Wide Open" and it's got a quieter, lighter feel to it with Fripp and Belew playing some light guitar, but still nicely playing off each other. Mastelotto adds a nice soft drum beat to match the mood and finally we hear Belew sing in his regular voice for the first time, and he still has that same unique edge to his voice and whenever he holds longer notes he sounds pretty good. The chorus is a little louder, but it's along the same lines, which is solid but the lighter side is a little less exciting for me. Fripp adds some keyboard-esque guitar effects which add another layer to things, then they wrap things up with a final chorus. Up next is "Elektrik" and Fripp leads the way with some more syrange guitar effets that sounds more like some sort of flute or organ than a guitar. It's a quiet, but interesting and captivating opening, then the mood shifts drastically to another industrial-style riff with some cool heavy Warr guitar by Gunn and Belew and Fripp taking turns going note for note in some more great combo play. This eight minute track is mostly instrumental, but it does have some faint talking in the background at times.  They cycle through quiet and loud parts in this long jam sash and unsurprisingly I think the louder/heavier parts are the highlight for sure. All in all a pretty cool tune! Track 5 is "Facts Of Life: Intro" and it's a short instrumental song that is very space-y and psychedelic for the most part, like being lost at sea. Then some guitar and drums some slamming in out of nowhere as they set the stage nicely to lead into "Facts Of Life", where Belew dives right into the first verse and sings in one of his weird alternate voices (not exactly, but kind of like "ProzaKc Blues" from their last album). The industrial music sounds perfectly choppy and machine-like as Fripp and Belew play off each other in some trippy and cool guitar tones. The vocals aren't my favourite in the verse, but the chorus is quite good all around with some better singing and some pretty cool guitars as well. They reach a lengthy and solid instrumental break and Fripp delivers probably his best solo of the album overtop as he is going pretty fast and things sound pretty sweet! Track 7 is "The Power To Believe II" and it's got a slow and quiet opening with some strange, psychedelic noises. Mastelotto adds some interesting, offbeat drums to the mix and Fripp and Belew both continue to play some trippy guitars while Gunn plays some pretty cool Warr guitar in the background. After almost three minutes the mood shifts to a new part with Mastelotto playing some cool xylophone-esque percussion and he really takes the reins with some pretty cool stuff! Belew sings the same verse as in the album's opening track in the same computer-y voice and things sound very prog-y the whole way through. The next track is "Dangerous Curves" and Fripp plays some very light, synth-like Frippertronics in another slow opening. After almost a minute the rest of the band starts to slowly fade into the mix as we hear some cool drums and some repetitive but decent guitar, but it's all very quiet, like it's being played at a distance. The volume increases very, very slowly in this near-seven minute instrumental and it's a little dull at times, but the climax is pretty cool before they devolve into a minute-long fadeout. Track 9 is "Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With" and they kick right into a loud, industrial main riff that sounds pretty cool with Belew sounding decent overtop some hard-hitting music. The lyrics are actually quite funny as Belew sings about the process of writing a song! The chorus is Belew singing "we're gonna have to write a chorus" and he sounds pretty good belting it out! I really like it and this is probably my favourite song on the album; there's something interesting going on all the time! Fripp delivers a super trippy and cool solo and the backing is pretty awesome as well. "I guess we'll repeat the chorus". It's pretty unique and interesting! Very cool tune! Up next is "The Power To Believe III" and it starts with the same verse by Belew and has some pretty psychedelic guitar and Frippertronics going on. Mastelotto comes in and out with some loud, funky drums and eventually things turn into a full-blown prog/psychedelic epic! There's some cool Warr guitar, some pretty epic and cool guitar from Belew, and all kinds of crazy and cool stuff by the master Fripp. Aside from the couple of lines at the beginning this is mostly instrumental and it's all pretty good! The album wraps up with "The Power To Believe IV: Coda" and Fripp quietly but captivatingly leads the way with some high synth-like Frippertronics. Belew repeats the same computer-y verse one last time and the album is over.

That is the end of "The Power To Believe" and I thought it was a solid album by King Crimson. There's definitely some cool stuff on this album and Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew continue to play off each other perfectly, but I thought it was a big step down from their last album, which I thought was pretty awesome. It was still good for sure, I would say it's better than all of their 80s albums, including "Discipline", but not approaching that upper tier still. This is actually the final studio album by King Crimson (they are technically still active in some form, but I don't think new studio Crimson is on the way) and so ends the career of one of the prog big six and one of the most influential bands in the progressive rock genre. They will certainly be missed in the Timeline! Here are my final rankings for King Crimson!

1. Red
2. Starless And Bible Black
3. In The Court Of The Crimson King
4. Larks' Tongues In Aspic
5. The ConstruKction Of Light
6. In The Wake Of Poseidon
7. Lizard
8. The Power To Believe
9. Discipline
10. Thrak
11. Three Of A Perfect Pair
12. Beat
13. Islands

There you have it! The top 5 are all quite good, but "Red" takes the cake for me.