"Islands" I feel is the forgotten King Crimson album, perhaps due that its mood is very different from the first three Crimson albums. Also, it's an album that strikes me as an arranger's album. It's more somber except for the sexual pull of "Ladies of the Road" which is horny and suggests a slight funk edge, but still in the King Crimson format.
Side two does it for me because there is a beautiful string orchestration piece "Prelude: Song of the Gulls" that's exquisite. Not a classical prog piece, or classic rock work, but an actual string orchestration of beautiful music. Four minutes of pure bliss. "Islands" reminds me of a cousin to perhaps Robert Wyatt's "Rock Bottom." It's not absurd as Wyatt, but there is a dreamy jazz feel that reminds me of that album as well as some of Miles Davis's orchestrated works with Gil Evans. There are reflections of the previous King Crimson album "Lizard" but more sophisticated if that's the proper word. One of my favorite Crimson albums, because it flows from cut-to-cut.
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