Listening to the remastered 40th anniversary of In the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson, and loving it. If ever there was an album in need of such a remaster, it was this one. Steve Wilson of Porcupine Tree knocked it out of the park. The bass on "21st Century Schizoid Man" sounds incredibly springier, and the sound overall is much sharper, fitting the feel and threat of the album in a way that befits the foreshadowing tone of what was to come after the "Summer of Love." I don't own a surround sound system (bit of overkill for me), but just comparing it to the old version, it is WAY better now. Good job. Can't wait to hear Red, and to a lesser extent, Lizard...sorry, that's a tough one! Gordon Haskell's vocals were just wrong for KC. But supposedly, Lizard is one of Wilson's favorites, and I hear he took extra care, while making the argument that a 5.1 treatment will do wonders, because the album is pretty dense, and will stretch it out a bit:
For personal reasons one of the very first albums I wanted to revamp was Lizard, which is the one album in the catalogue that tends to divide the fans between those that love it and those that find it almost unlistenable. I’m one of those that adore it, and could make a pretty good case for it being one of the most adventurous rock albums ever made. But I also knew it could work better in 5.1, as it’s almost as if there is too much information bursting out of the tracks to be contained in mere stereo. This is not the case in surround sound, where everything has the space to breathe, and the genius of Lizard’s progressive avant-garde jazz rock experiment finally blossoms in all its glorious folly.
