King Crimson
The Power To Believe

Three years into the twenty-first century, the Crimson enjoy the crazy show put on by the schizoid men.

The title "The Power to Believe" almost seems to evoke a hypothetical concept that began with the first album, for which despite everything we still have a great ability/power: hope.

The expressive urgency of Sir Robert Fripp led to the composition of these eleven tracks, to which were added Adrian Belew's visionary lyrics, fully in the style of the work. Cold work, apparently of sterile sound experimentation, with guitar loops that have characterized them since Discipline, combined with the riffing of a revisitation of Red in the digital era.

The CD contains a bit of metal, a pop that is not pop, electronica, and ambient music; they are nothing more than rhetorical instruments devoid of their original meaning, and this perfectly balanced (or almost) mixture of sounds becomes the bearer of our optimistic and very naive message, human light through modern mechanization.

The a cappella intro, with Belew's synthesized voice, opens "Level Five", the rock Grand Guignol, guitars, synth, Warr guitar (by Trey Gunn) and real and sampled percussion (by the excellent Mastellotto), causing a controlled explosion, but with a very strong sound impact. "Eyes Wide Open" is the hypothetical single, a beautiful and velvety song that soothes the atmosphere previously created, although Belew's hermetic text is a prelude to the (lyrical) themes of the album. "Elektrik" and "Facts Of Life" are two other sound experiments, but they sound somewhat twisted on themselves; the first is an instrumental in crescendo built on a guitar loop by Fripp, the second is a track that follows the canonical song form but is rich in instrumental dissonances and vocal games in the singing, supported by strange and highly elaborate guitar sounds.

The heart of the work is reached with the second part of "The Power to Believe" (in all respects the first), in which we have electronic percussion, a return to soundscapes perfectly employed here, and absolutely intriguing raga-rock rhythms. The discussion continues with the fantastic "Dangerous Curves", articulated on electronic 4/4 beats, progressively framed by the work of the instruments until the final explosion, symbolizing the frantic race of modernity, which inevitably crashes against the rocks of human nature, which cannot be overlooked.

"Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With", a tongue-twister title that reveals the irreverent nature of Belew's lyrics, a philippic against consumerism and the stupidity of mass mechanisms, set to music according to musical schools born from King Crimson, with a quasi-industrial pace and pre-chorus reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails. The work concludes with the third part of the title track, a nocturnal bass-guitar instrumental, in which the phrase from the intro echoes, disjointed, leaving space for the outro, which finishes the album as it began.

In conclusion, a pleasant and almost never heavy work, the experimentation is almost never self-indulgent or so heavy as to undermine the musicality of the work, which, after the two previous works, is no small feat. A beautiful album also because it is inscrutable to the modern music scene, which thrives on grandiose neglect of detail, which is instead the main strength of this latest effort by the greatest prog band of all time.

A must-listen at least once, as the natural continuation of a musical journey never stuck in itself.