Favorite pairing of KC albums?

[EruditeMan]

Each grouping of albums to me feels like one complete piece. I don't have just one favorite album so much... I left out Islands because, although I adore the album, it doesn't fit into a group of three as well as the others do.

[EruditeMan]

It may be even harder to pick one favorite pairing of albums, but I'm just curious to see...

[diderot]

Not so hard (maybe a little biased) as I've listening to Larks' complete recordings the last couple of weeks...

[Indyrod]

this is about as easy a Poll as we have had, and I am pretty sure I know how it will end. the Larks era is pretty popular around here, and imo, the Discipline album is in a category by itself. there's nothing it can be paired with, is my thinking. and take the Thrak album off that last grouping, and what is left would be my second favorite. to me, the "In the Court" album is so iconic, I hate to even see it grouped with "In the Wake", although I guess it has to be. so, obviously, the Larks era takes this one easily.

[EruditeMan]

this is about as easy a Poll as we have had, and I am pretty sure I know how it will end. the Larks era is pretty popular around here, and imo, the Discipline album is in a category by itself. there's nothing it can be paired with, is my thinking. and take the Thrak album off that last grouping, and what is left would be my second favorite. to me, the "In the Court" album is so iconic, I hate to even see it grouped with "In the Wake", although I guess it has to be. so, obviously, the Larks era takes this one easily.

Discipline is certainly the best album of that era, but the influence is still clearly heard in Beat and 3OAPP, so I paired those...
I am new here, and in real life I don't know any Crimson fans :/

Is In The Wake of Poseidon generally disliked around here? Why would you hate seeing it grouped with the first album? I think it's a great follow-up, it's not bad for a band to make a sequel to an album and try to recreate that epic sound, as long as the songs themselves are different. It's just expanding on the themes created in the first album. I love it just as much as In The Court, but Lizard and Islands are also some of my favorite albums too, and I hear those are the less popular ones...

I love the Larks' era more perhaps, but it's all really too close to tell for me, because the whole new wave Discipline era is great too...

[Indyrod]

Is In The Wake of Poseidon generally disliked around here? Why would you hate seeing it grouped with the first album? I think it's a great follow-up, it's not bad for a band to make a sequel to an album and try to recreate that epic sound, as long as the songs themselves are different. It's just expanding on the themes created in the first album. I love it just as much as In The Court, but Lizard and Islands are also some of my favorite albums too, and I hear those are the less popular ones...

I love the Larks' era more perhaps, but it's all really too close to tell for me, because the whole new wave Discipline era is great too...

I've just never liked WAKE that much, the Holst's Mars suite is a distraction from the classical orchestra releases, so it just doesn't deliver much to me, unlike Bolero on Lizards. I'm sure everybody else can speak for themselves, but WAKE hasn't never got me too excited.

[EruditeMan]

Understandable. Bolero on Lizard and Islands on Islands certainly do more for me than The Devil's Triangle, which I've only enjoyed a great deal while not very sober. The slight reprise of the title track near the end is kind of cool, but overall that track does little for me. I don't think it detracts too much from the rest of the album, which I've always loved.

[vrooom]

Sorry, I take one album from each "era" because each era usually has just once decent record and a couple of stinkers. So it is ITCOKC, LTiA, Discipline, THRAK & TPTB. That should do it. LOL!

[steven]

I would have went with #1 if it would have had "Islands" instead of "Lizard." The Discipline era trio of albums is my least favorite of anything. A hard call, but the "Red" era is the highlight for me.....

[Geno]

Is In The Wake of Poseidon generally disliked around here?

I wouldn't say dislike, but I'm generaly lukewarm on it in the same way I'm lukewarm on ITCotCK. Symphonic mellotron prog just doesn't do much for me. (Not that I don't enjoy the other parts.)

#1 if it would have had "Islands" instead of "Lizard."

Ermmmm. I think the OP was right - the first three albums aren't exactly a matched set, but it makes sense to group them together. Islands is different enough that it doesn't belong paired with anything. (I like it more than any of its predecessors, definitely more than Lizard, but wouldn't make that substitution in the poll.)

Where the poll is concerned I'm with the majority here. I'd say I love the Larks' group and the 80s group about equally (it's really an apples-oranges thing anyway), but the 80s trilogy was uneven in spots, so Larks' gets the edge here. Those albums are all top-notch and solid with barely a weak spot among them.