With successful European and American tours completed, the 1980s-era Crimson recorded a second album in 1982 whose lyrics were loosely based on the writing and themes of Jack Kerouac and Beat scene writers of the ‘40s and 50s. Neil, Jack And Me continues to explore the pointillist territory first mapped out on the previous year’s Discipline, while Adrian Belew’s tender ballad, Heartbeat, is about the closest King Crimson ever came to an FM Radio-friendly hit. On Neurotica, their portrait-in-sound and words of a densely teeming New York, Belew’s agile vocals duck and dive between high-speed streaks of neon-lit guitar, Bruford’s bracing percussion and Levin’s nimble bass. The turbulent collective improvisation, Requiem, contains an intense, scorching Fripp solo displaying an altogether darker shade of Crimson.
