Robert Fripp “Exposure” (1979)

I may be alone in thinking this is a greater record than anything King Crimson ever did, but I shouldn't be. Here Fripp harnesses his experimental side to actual polished pop songs -- nothing here goes much over four minutes -- and the cast of thousands is used to good effect. Terre Roche screams her lungs out on the title track, a kind of modernist update of "The Great Gig in the Sky"; Peter Gabriel reprises "Here Comes the Flood", perhaps the most affecting song either he or Fripp has ever been connected with; and Daryl Hall, of all people, hits the high spot with his wistful voice on the guitar looped "North Star". It's the perfect meld of prog-meets-art rock-meets-new wave-meets-soul, and I don't think it's a coincidence that it came out in 1979, a time when music had collapsed into a huge melting pot and for a brief moment anything seemed possible (of course it all began to harden into separate genres -- very separate -- almost immediately). No coincidence, either, that Exposure marks a decade since In the Court of the Crimson King. –Brad