King Crimson Albums Ranked: Worst to Best. (Rants Included) 

Long Live The King (Crimson)!!!

Wow! Someone who loves KC almost as much as me!

Really enjoyed this video guys! Ranking KC is super hard because there is so much brilliance in all the different eras! Great job!

Great ranking Dermot love the video. Only got into King Crimson in the last few years. Absolutely love Islands such an underrated album. Tara will be happy to know I just filmed my first reaction to The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.

A nice rundown of the albums by such a unique group. If their debit is a bit like being in a dark mass, then Larks is like being in a building as it's exploding! KC records never lose their impact.

Yay! A whole video about one of my favorite bands! I was introduced to King Crimson (In the Court of the Crimson King on cassette) in 1999 by a close friend Svi, a Russian artist living in the US. He changed my life by introducing me to King Crimson, and it got me into Prog. I ❤Islands too! 😊

1 Lark's Tongues in Aspic 2 In the Court of the Crimson King 3 Lizard 4 In the Wake of Poseidon 5 Red 6 Discipline 7 Starless and Bible Black 8 Three of a Perfect Pair 9 Islands 10 Beat Good show!

My favourite band 🤏😊

This is as good a ranking that I've seen, the top 4 are interchangeable for me. Deserving of a big thumbs up and a sub, great stuff!

I love King Crimson and it's so hard to pick the best album from the 70s. I wouldn't say I like Lizard as I can't get into it. The 80s albums I like but they sound a bit like Talking Heads in places. So if I had to pick an album that is my favourite it would have to be the first album. Great show as always from you both.

It’s really cool to hear your journey with Crimson. I’m still going through the catalog and learning what I like (the 80s stuff) and maybe what I don’t like (haven’t found it yet). Because it’s music you really have to listen to I know it’s going to take me a while. Thanks for giving me a road map.

Great overview, Dermot! My musical big brother turned me onto Crim in 1979 and I bought Exposure the minute it came out. The one that really sold me on the band was Starless, and I was primed for Discipline because I was already aware of Adrian, and it remains in my Top 5 albums of all time. Thanks for your insights!

Dermot.. let's face it King Crimson represent Prog at it's dirtiest. And Dirty Prog ( I'm not being detrimental ) , has reached its pinnacle with this band. YES , Genesis , Jethro Tull , Camel , Marillion , Floyd don't have what KC have. And that's not to disrespect any of the above. Far from it....I absolutely LOVE all of them. But King Crimson ( for me ) offer a different listening experience. Van Der Graaf Generator are part way there ( again , my love for VDGG knows scarcely no equals ) but King Crimson offer a rawness and level of dynamics ( and beauty ) , which other Prog bands fall short of. A completely unique band. It's a tough one.. I'll have to say Larks tongues has to take the prize for my personal taste. You two are awesome. Great video. 😍

I'm a huge fan of the Discipline/Beat/ToaPP trio. To me, "Beat" is the most "accessible", "Three of a Perfect Pair" is the densest and "Discipline" is the middle point. I love all three, but if I had to choose just one, "Discipline" would be my pick.

I love king crimson red is my favorite then the first I don't think they had a bad album robert Fripp was such a genius and perfectionist rocking guitar player 🎸

I liked ToaPP and ITCOTKC (so haunting, doomy and instrumentally brilliant) immediately, ever since rooming with a friend of a friend in college and peeling them out of his stack of prog records. What a surprise Discipline was! But it really took 'til past the age of 40 for me to start getting into the rest of their catalogue , in a fit of what you could call middle-age musical renaissance. Once I did start getting KC, though, I jumped in with both feet and bought everything!... so, Dermot, you're not alone there ; ). I agree mostly with your rankings, although for me The ConstruKction of Light really has crept toward the top of the pile in the later years of my fanhood. I love the knottiness of the guitar parts on there. LTIA-4 I find underrated, but you really have to get the EP of "Happy With What You Have..." and hear the live version of it, which absolutely crushes. That EP is hard to find but worth it -many other gems on it too, like Mie Gakure and "Clouds(Including Einstein's Relatives)." If you like their live improv (essentially what Starless and Bible Black is, right?), there's some amazing stuff from ProjeKcts I-IV - essentially fraKctalizations of KC in the 1990s, summarized and abridged onto a CD called "Deception Of The Thrush: A Beginner's Guide To The ProjeKcts" (1999)

Always loved larks tongues ,not an easy album to get into but once you do it's very rewarding.

Fantastic channel, cheers and all the best. King Crimson and VDGG for me are the best two classic prog bands.

Excellent!

I'm amazed at Tara's knowledge & passion for Prog Rock! She's a credit to you Dermot. Have you guys ever hear Zenith Classic Rock, an online station based in Waterford. (I think they used to be on Fm down in the area) They play a lot of Prog tracks too. I've even discovered a few newer artists (prog & otherwise) that they've played. Loving the content, great to see the channel growing.

Thanks, entertaining analysis of the albums, the love for them comes across. I have the first, and the holy trinity larks/starless/red. Need to hear more of the 80s/90s stuff, though I like discipline. Managed to get to see them live when they last reformed, at Birmingham Symphony Hall, with the 3 drummers…un believable, one of the best gigs I’ve attended. Used to read Fripps online journals, they were hysterical rants some of them but always interesting.

13:12 I have to agree, this is one of the albums to me that was an absolute life changer.

Thank you, I got into King crimson over COVID and love them.

Lol…the rant has been released! I’m gonna watch and then throw in my two pennies worth. 👍

I agree,the track moonchild let's down in the court of the crimson king .

This also will prompt a re listen of Lark's Tongue for me.

hey guys..fripp and company have been a soundtrack to the lives of those who listen..i had a period of time where 'USA' never left my turntable... great video..tough ranking..well done.. peace..rocky

Totaly agre with you on Larks Tounges In Aspic ❤ I was blown away my self, eleven years old. Check out The Norwegian 70s prog band Popul vuh/ace. They have very much in common with early King Crimson. The song Joy and Pleasure would be a good start. The entire album actually. One of the best debut albums ever IMO.❤

You gave RU-vid's subtitling system a real workout !

That was a great video I think for me top 5 would be 5 Three of Perfect Pair 4 Beat 3 Larks Tongue 2 Court of Crimson King 1 Red I think Fripp like Zappa found a way of getting best out of everyone and The Lark line up was my favorite. I love everything Fripp and if you haven’t seen Robert Fripp on Darryl’s House ( with Darryl Hall ) i highly recommend it

Hi Spinnin'Proggers👋🏻 I loved hearing Dermot's journey through the Crimson discography. With so many RU-vidrs I get the impression that they don't "really know" half of the albums they talk about. They just churn out content that they know folks will watch. You guys always seem passionate about the music so I value your opinions and check out stuff that you recommend. Anyway, being a metalhead at heart Crimson were never heavy enough for me, but over the last 10-15 years I've begun to appreciate them. Red is probably their heaviest album and the one I generally reach for. Poseidon and Lizard never seem to get much love so I never checked them out for years but discovered that I absolutely love them both. Still can't get into Islands tho👎🏻. Too mellow for my unsophisticated metal taste. I never really checked out Beat or Three Of A Perfect Pair either but Dermot's love for them has got me fired up up give them another listen or two. To be honest I prefer watching Crimson rather than simply listening to them and own a few DVDs. Deja Vroom, Radical Action (To Unseat The Hold Of Monkey Mind), and Meltdown (Live In Mexico). They're all really good. I also dragged my better half to the cinema to watch the recent Crimson documentary. She sat thru the whole thing with no complaints so she's a keeper🥰 I'm kicking myself for never catching Crimson live. Hopefully Mr Fripp has a change of heart and tours one last time🤞🏻 Peace, Love, and Respect guys🤘🏻

Lark's Tongue in aspic, in the court of the Crimson King and red in that order😮 the only three King Crimson albums I listen to😊

I love King Crimson all of their albums are amazing but my favorite is Larks’ Tongues in Aspic.

1:24 I didn't think you were older than 79!... lol.... great videos guys!!!! :D

Great video! I loved hearing your personal history with the band. Thanks for expanding on the rant! 😂 As an aside, the blobby cover for Islands is the US cover, as far as I know. It’s the cover on my copy at least (and is pretty awful I must say)

Big band, big subject. There’s a lot to unpack. Here we go… My intro besides hearing the tune Court of the CK on the radio was through April Wine. That band had an album that had a cover of Schizoid Man. I played that album a ton back when it was new. A friend of mine had Larks’. I loved it and that was the first KC album I bought. It’s still my overall favourite. Then…..I was the perfect age for Discipline and that was where my KC problems began. I knew Adrian Belew through Sheik Yerbouti so he wasn’t an unknown to me. I LOVED Discipline and saw the tour. That cemented my belief that this was a major band. I then started digging in and buying all their CDs. The 70s stuff was hit and miss. I still don’t care for Lizard but the rest were ear candy. I saw the tour for Perfect Pair which was the live album Absent Lovers in Montreal. I was there, that’s me clapping in the 16th row! Thrak was also a great album but sad memories surround it for me. I kept half an ear on the dribs and drabs that came afterward. Then…..the 21st Century finally gets here and KC is out there touring with three drummers in the front. OMFG!!! I saw this in a smallish venue in Vancouver. I don’t have words flowery enough to give justice to what I saw that evening. Most of you know Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of the Monkey Mind. If you don’t…. What are you waiting for!? There’s my blah, blah on my history with this great band. One of the big seven! Anyways, it was a slice and a half listening to your history with this band. Looking forward to more. 🤘😳🤘

Will you be able to see the upcoming Beat tour? What a lineup!

I agree with you Dad that wasn't the beginning of p r o g actually I think the nice were. You are amazing sir I very rarely find anyone that agrees with me on this😊

Hi Dermot, a fine lowdown indeed. My ears pricked up at your mention of this "Baboom" title, which somehow has missed my radar. I looked into Discogs for info and it's not listed. Can you please provide some info, such as label, date, etc, anything that will lead me to find it to buy. Cheers.

I find Robert Fripp to be a generally arrogant and often obnoxious fellow...but then he has the technical ability and the musical pedigree to compensate for the arrogance. He's an intriguing character and he writes in an interesting, evocative manner as I discovered when I read his book...whose title now escapes my feeble memory. Anyway, the only KC period I find intolerable is the 1981-1983 set 3 discs that I find utterly tedious. The 1990s incarnation is superb and the pair of albums from 2001 and 2003 I enjoy almost as much as the 1973-1974 era. This is an amusing and interesting video which bears comparison to the Prog Corner KC list.

Hi 😎it's me the Canuck.what do you think about Atomic rooster and Budgie?

I saw them at the RAH 2019 and honestly a little bit dissapointed.2 drummers and the first 30 minutes was drum solos only no band - hey ho.COTCK top album all day long for me.

Fripp must've been inspired by Meccano 😂

King Crimson killed my father.