Starless and Bible Black

King Crimson - Starless and Bible Black
Critic Score
Based on 3 reviews
1974 Ratings: #50 / 130
User Score
Based on 545 ratings
1974 Rank: #171
Liked by 81 people
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JustSomeGuy
80

Starless And Bible Black ultimately stands as a good moment that lacks a lot of the punch that can be found elsewhere within their discography.

Is it down to poor timing? Maybe. Any album that relies so heavily on experimenting is going to struggle when paired with two albums of pure rock perfection as Larks' Tongues and Red. And within their classic output in general, Starless And Bible Black certainly had to make its impact heard in order stand alongside the likes of Court. I mean, hell, ... read more

Geem
75

They actually put this album cover on the side of British army vehicles. Those first 4 tracks were mind-blowing, but it kinda trailed off into not-so interesting stuff. The improvisation was pretty impressive, but nothing like Moonchild. There's a lot of great in this album, so I'll give it a great score :)

JayCrackers
77

The most bombastic King Crimson record, one where their avant-garde and free improvisation takes the complete reigns for something which strangely manages to work itself together in a magical way, now obviously the lack of structure does hinder the overal experience for me, but King Crimson manages to make this super entertaining and truly abstract listen and The Great Deceiver is super overshadowed track by King Crimson

Track Review

The Great Deceiver 9.5/10
Lament 7.5/10.
We'll Let You ... read more

henryrockwell
47

As duas primeiras faixas são maravilhosas, é um disco experimental delicioso, ou melhor, seria delicioso se a partir de We'll Let You Know ele não se convertesse num sonífero instrumental silencioso chatíssimo.

Metalhead123
85

Anyone have any idea how Starless wound up on the next album and not the album for which the song's name is derived from?

Angela_H
66

People generally do like this album even though it clearly is sandwiched between two legendary albums, and while this does have a vision to it, the improvs they use mostly don't come together as a whole studio album than it otherwise does when you listen to live performances, and as a result it doesn't flow as an album and feels like a collection of songs.

I encourage listening to full live performances of them around this time as I think they better pull off these songs live.

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Track List

1The Great Deceiver
4:01
88
2Lament
4:05
85
3We'll Let You Know
3:39
76
4The Night Watch
4:41
89
5Trio
5:38
80
6The Mincer
4:08
71
7Starless and Bible Black
9:10
78
8Fracture
11:13
92
Total Length: 46 minutes
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Added on: March 16, 2013