On 2003-11-18 Robert Cossaboon, The happy land of Walworth, NY wrote: Earthbound was King Crimson´s fifth album. Upon its initial release, it was chainsawed by just about every music critic for it´s woeful sound quality and the woeful musicianship that seemed to pervade the album. True, until only a couple of years ago, the only way to even listen to this album was through a bootleg CD of an old LP. Before I bought my compact disc version of Earthbound all I had to listen to was an old Italian import from the late seventies-and boy, was the sound on that woeful! So, on the 30th anniversary edition, the sound quality is nothing short of revelatory. Fripp has done miracles with the songs here; granted, there is still a lot of distortion and fuzz on the opener, 21st Century Schizoid Man, but the bass and sax solos come through very distinctly, whereas before there was only a hint that something other than loud drumming was going on. Boz´s distorted vocals are a true marvel of creepiness through that device, the VCS3. That said, the rest of the album you will either love or hate for its jazzy lean. You´ll get the picture with the next cut, Peoria, a loose jazz-improv played in the city of its namesake. As one Amazon reviewer pointed out, (and as the liner notes hint at) the rest of band apart from Fripp had further plans after the Crimson tour was to have run out, so the playing seems to have a non-committal feel to it-you just have the feeling that these guys were past the make-the- customer-satisfied point in their tour obligations, which in itself isn´t an evil. Collins´s sax playing is ferocious. Arguably he´s the real star of this album. ´Sailor´s Tale´ seems to be the only other Crimson proper song. It´s a great showcase for Fripp´s distorted guitar and the ever-pervasive mellotron. Then there´s the title track, another original you´ll only find on this album. This is probably the funkiest of the songs; once more, Collins´s sax playing is ear candy. Boz´s vocals, however, should have stayed in the VCS3. This song is interesting, because despite its looseness, there is still a lot of discipline working-I know this sounds stupid, but you get the idea when you put Larks Tongues in Aspic in the player. The Earthbound song sort of predicts the direction Fripp is heading towards. The last song is a reworked blast from their past, Groon, but it´s as you´ve never heard it before, thanks to the sax-propelled funk injected. Here the rhythm section of Wallace/Boz particularly shines and for a brief time Fripp seems to get lost in his own background, until everything just kind of meanders with that overly long drum solo. I also agree with Fripp that this incarnation of Crimson had gone about as far as it could go with the particular musical direction it was pursuing. Thankfully Fripp had the wisdom to move towards more improvised heavy rock-and towards what would be Crimson´s Golden Age on Lark´s Tongues, Starless and Bible Black, and Red.. And summed up by saying Earthbound gets it´s due at last!. Currently Earthbound: 30th Anniversary Edition has an overall rating of 8 over 10.
Earthbound: 30th Anniversary Edition can also be found in the following searches:
King Crimson claimed Originally released in 1972, Earthbound was King Crimson´s first ever-live album recorded during what was, at the time, King Crimson´s final tour. It features King Crimson´s 1971 touring line-up of Robert Fripp, Boz Burrell, Mel Collins and Ian Wallace. Earthbound was only ever released on vinyl and appears on CD for the first time (30th anniversary edition). HDCD. 24 bit remastered. Virgin. 2002.
Item that are similar to Earthbound: 30th Anniversary Edition can be found at: