King Crimson
Islands
The jazz-prog pivot the critic called pretentious and artless
Released in the UK on 3 December 1971, Islands became King Crimson's fourth album and the only studio recording of the Fripp-Collins-Burrell-Wallace-Sinfield lineup. A contemporary hostile review, alongside chart results with their dates.
The verdict at the time
Bangs praised Fripp's guitar on "Sailor's Tale" as a standout display of passion and power, but attacked the album's pretentiousness and unevenness, famously quipping that "Song of the Gulls" sounded like "music for the advert of a vaginal deodorant" and that the band insisted on being arty without true substance.
Chart peaks
European positions are listed by country. Later chart entries are labelled separately.
Sources & context
One critic's opinion, summarised from Lester Bangs' original Creem review of January 1972. The album is now recognised as a pivotal jazz-prog transition in King Crimson's history, cited by AllMusic, Rolling Stone and DGM Live as an essential entry in the band's early catalogue despite its mixed contemporary reception.
