Much as I'm a massive Fripp fan now, I spent most of the 1970s ignorant of Fripp, King Crimson, his work with Bowie, Eno or any of his other projects until I heard this, his debut solo album. It didn't really sound like anything I knew at the time, and coming back to it now, it does feel like an attempt to do absolutely everything in 45 minutes.
Opening with a collage of spoken word, vocalists singing minor chords (feel free to correct me, musos!) and a telephone ringing, we're straight into some old fashioned rock'n'roll with You Burn Me Up I'm A Cigarette, with vocals by Daryl Hall, then Breathless, much more recognisably Fripp with a very King Crimson (Red era) style instrumental with Tony Levin on Bass and Narada Michael Walden on drums, Fripp's guitar rising through the scales over a pounding beat. Van Der Graaf Generator's Peter Hammill guests on Disengage, again, frantic guitar work, which Hammill exceeds vocally. Right on cue, there's a gentle break for North Star, Fripp's understated guitar allowing Hall space to make this his song. Chicago is less compelling, Hammill doing his best to carry the song, but it's not one of my favourites. NY3 features a proto-League Of Gentlemen, with XTC's Barry Andrews on organ and a lot of shouting, before Terre Roche brings the first half to a conclusion with the lovely Mary, Fripp's guitar and frippertronics being the only accompaniment.
The second half opens with Fripp's take on Exposure, the song he composed with Peter Gabriel for Gabriel's 2nd album, Roche taking a far wilder approach to it than Gabriel had. Haaden Two is another powerful Crimson style guitar piece, punctuated with spoken sections, sometimes interesting, sometimes tiresome, then Urban Landscape, a barely audible soundscape leading into I May Not Have Had Enough Of Me But I've Had Enough Of You, a loud in-your face song in which Roche and Hammill duet and duel, and which frankly goes on a bit too long. Water Music I is another short soundscape, taking us into a superb version of Peter Gabriel's Here Comes The Flood, not too different to the version on his first album, but the Fripp treated guitar getting louder in the mix as the song progresses works really well. Similarly, the much simpler chorus arrangement (it was full orchestra on PG1) just piano and frippertronics sounds much more effective, while the ambient Water Music II flows (sorry!) from this, creating a lovely ending.
On the reissued CD, there's a second disc of alternate versions, many having Hall taking the Hammill vocal parts, an idea which was shelved due to demands from Hall's management.
Some of this album works so well, some doesn't quite hit the mark, but none of it is timid or predictable. It's a great album in which someone who might have been dismissed as one of the 1970s prog dinosaurs really exposes his idea.
4* - a Fripp manifesto in 45 minutes!
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