King Crimson

condition (record/cover): NM / VG+ (ring wear)

With original innersleeve.

Released in March 1984, Three Of A Perfect Pair closes the Discipline-era King Crimson trilogy and is, on its own terms, one of the most carefully sequenced rock records of its decade. Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Tony Levin and Bill Bruford had been working as a unit for three years; the sessions for Three Of A Perfect Pair were tense (Belew has described them as "the hardest record I ever made"), and the resolution they reached was to split the album into two formally distinct halves.

Side A is "the left side": pop songs. "Three Of A Perfect Pair" is the most accessible piece Crimson had recorded since "Heartbeat". "Model Man" is a Belew character study. "Open, Part I" is the album's lyrical core. Side B is "the right side": instrumentals and dissonance. "Sartori In Tangier" returns from Beat in a darker guise. "Industry" is eight minutes of metallic drone and electronic percussion that prefigures the entire industrial-rock sound of the late 1980s. "Dig Me", the closing piece, is a junked-car monologue from Belew over Fripp's most damaged guitar work in years. The contrast between sides is the whole conceptual argument.

The original vintage European Polydor / Editions EG pressing of 817 882-1. Three Of A Perfect Pair closed the chapter: Crimson disbanded after the supporting tour and would not reconvene until 1994's VROOOM sessions. The most underrated of the 1980s Crimson trilogy and one of the period's most quietly innovative records.