Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With [EP]

King Crimson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 8, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: EP
• Label: Sanctuary Records
• ASIN: B00006JTDW
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #311,878 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Bude

2. Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With [Edit]

3. Mie Gakure

4. She Shudders

5. Eyes Wide Open

6. Shoganai

7. I Ran

8. Potato Pie

9. Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Pt. IV

10. Clouds

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Very Promising Peek of Things to Come, November 26, 2002

By 

Snow Leopard (Urbana, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With (Audio CD)

With all of the recent remasterings from King Crimson, it must seem that at long last the longest lasting truly progressive band in rock history had finally settled into the twilight era of complacency. What a pleasure, then, to discover a new disc of almost entirely new material.

The disc (technically a 36-minute EP) opens with the tiny little "Bude", a pleasantly eerie bit for solo voice by Adrian; by tiny, I mean 26 seconds long. Like the innumerable "Walk on - No Pussyfootings" from all those archival live releases, this is mostly just a quiet ambient prelude for the crushing bit to come.

Namely, the title track, "Happy with What you Have to Be Happy With". Like "Dinosaur" from "Thrak", this is the hook, except that it is no fossilized relic at all (neither was "Dinosaur" of course). It launches itself from your speakers and grabs you by the throat instantly--and instantly you know that the money was well-spent. The song is pounding, intriguing, and even catchy. It is the perfect wedding of the "pop" sensibility of 80s era King Crimson, and the gnarly metallized thraking of the 90s edition of KC. Plus, I think Adrian read all of the reviews about his ghastly vocals on "ConstruKction of Light", because he howls and soars here as he has not for seemingly a long time. Without a doubt, this track alone makes the $11.00 price tag perfectly reasonable.

There then follows, per one of Fripp's oldest tricks, a deliberately contrasting two minute piece of mellow soundscapes ("Mie Gakure"). Slight, and not at all distinguished in any way, it is a very apt cushion and decompression piece after "Happy". Fripp's song contrasts will sometimes seem too pat or contrived, but here the mellow little toss-off comes off just fine. All the more so, for being followed by another tiny Adrian vocal bit, called "She Shudders" which, at 35 seconds, is over before you've noticed it's started.

There then follows "Eyes Wide Open" (billed as the acoustic version). It reminds me of "Matte Kudasai" from Discipline (which is a very favorable comparison, in my book). One really doesn't expect Crimson unplugged, so there's something a bit startling in the instrumentation here, but once the novelty wears off, Adrian's very happily recovered crooning and soulfulness will maintain interest through this, one of the longer songs (at just over four minutes).

Shoganai (2'53") reminds me somewhat of "The Sheltering Sky" performed on tubular bells and cloud chambers, as opposed to exotic tomtoms of Bruford's original, and even more like the opening section of "Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part 1". Again, it is another ambient piece mostly, unpretentiously brought off and not at all a gyp or boring to listen to. Like "Mie Gakure" earlier, it also is followed by yet another tiny Adrian thing ("I Ran"), which feature slightly more treated vocals.

Next comes "Potato Pie", the second longest song on the disc at 5'03". First, before I complain, I should mention that Adrian sounds just fine on this song, as throughout the album--he's definitely got his pipes back and, though I've yet to pay close attention to the lyrics, seems not to be resorting to some of the embarrassingly trite sentiments found on "ConstruKction". Meanwhile, the song itself is a somewhat unhappy marriage of a kind of swing-blues feel (filtered through Fripp's sensibility) and some progressive licks that sound like someone took out the bass and refused to amp-up the guitars. I get the impression this might be "ProzaKc Blues II", and is certainly better than the first one, especially after it gets beyond its structurally shaky beginning.

The next song is another live performance of "Larks' Tongues in Aspic 4". As soon as you hear it, it becomes clear how cleverly Fripp (or the band) has assembled the EP. We were blasted with "Happy", then treated to a rather wave like rising and falling of mellow contrasts, that finally began to turn up the volume again with "Potato Pie" as a way to get us to the more-than-ten-minute extravaganza of sonic crushing that is Larks' 4. The song itself, of course, is at once both familiar (for being known) and unfamiliar (for being a subtle reexploration of the piece)--the section with Adrian's solo hits some especially gnarly highpoints, as one could only hope. The only bad part is that you have to endure that dopey coda's lyrics again...just kidding. Adrian actually doesn't sing them, you just get the music which is still a bit light in the britches compared to the first 8 minutes of the song, but it seems (once again) that Adrian has been paying attention to his fan's commentary. Somehow it seems ironic to me that this song is so much more at home on this EP than on the original "ConstruKction" disc.

The last two pieces "Clouds" and "Einstein's Relatives" are a seemingly random mishmash of song fragments, remarks, bursts of laughter, outtakes, and so forth. I'm reminded of patches of Fripp's "Exposure", where he indulges in montage, and/or Frank Zappa's earliest music stews. And while outtakes seem to work all right for movies, musically the novelty value is scant at the first, and nil the second or third, time around.

I don't think the idea of outtakes is inappropriate here. The cover art shows a couple, enthralled, in a theater and the very last sound bite of the last song is the last few notes of the song "In the Court of the Crimson King" followed by applause. Given that musically the album ends with a live song, and that King Crimson does not do encores, one gets therefore a rather smarmy dose of movie-style outtakes instead. Happily, there was not 30 minutes of coming attractions prior to the feature presentation at least, though, technically, this EP is precisely that-a hint of the next King Crimson album to come.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great step forward and a promising future., October 8, 2002

By 

Timothy Read (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With (Audio CD)

After the sterile The ConstruKction of Light, Happy With What You Have to be Happy With is a major surprise.

The first track is a spacey, short distorted-vocal track, and is one of seven "haikus" as the band termed it. It goes into the most alive, most dynamic, energetic song I've heard from King Crimson in years, and quite possibly one of the strongest studio tracks they've ever released. It sounds like the reemergence of the ProjeKct Four sound with a bit of a Tool influence, but with very aggressive, raw production. In other words, it's about as far from TCOL as you can get.

The title track is then followed by two more haikus -- a Fripp soundscape and another Adrian Belew vocal piece. Then the "Acoustic" version of Eyes Wide Open follows. It's not acoustic in the MTV Unplugged sense, there's still some soundscapes in the background. It's a very good song, very relaxed.

Two more haikus, and then a bluesy number called "Potato Pie". It's head and shoulders beyond the iffy ProzaKc Blues. It's got a more mellow sound and doesn't try and hit you over the head with math-rock interlocking guitar runs.

Then another recording of Larks' IV, very energetic and alive -- it almost sounds like it was recorded live.

It's a phenomenal EP and preview for the future. If you were left cold by TCOL, this album might be for you. If you're not a Crim fan or caught them on tour with Tool, you might like this album as well. It's got great energy, and feels like the band is enthusiastic about the music they're making. It rocks hard -- and even though there are distorted/processed vocals, they work MUCH better than the previous album.

This an album best played as loud as your stereo can manage.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Whoa nelly!, October 16, 2002

By 

spiral_mind (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With (Audio CD)

Bone-crushing beats, oriental chimes, distorted haikus floating in the ether, and a killer "Larks' Tongues in Aspic IV" to top them all - all in 33 minutes? Crimson is at it again, giving us a glimpse of what their forthcoming album The Power To Believe will sound like. In true KC fashion this EP is fascinating, spine-tingling and outright confusing all at once. They made me laugh out loud, thrash my head to the beat, marvel at their skill, fear for my life and ultimately laugh some more. Who says these guys don't have a sense of humor? While Happy... may ultimately prove to be more of a novelty than a release I'll return to time and time again (as I do Red, Thrak and the ProjeKcts), it succeeds admirably at what it tries to do; simply give a small preview of what's still to come.

The title track, apparently an edit from the full future version, is a crazed mix of upbeat catchiness, pounding maniacal fury and lyrical absurdity tossed into a blender on Liquefy. And if it isn't enough to make you laugh out loud, "Potato Pie" probably will; it's another twisted Crimson take on the blues. It's what the old Metallica might have sounded like if they decided to imitate a Blind Lemon Jefferson tune for a lark one night. For those who lamented the absence of a KC ballad a-la "One Time" on the last album, there'll be a nice acoustic treat in "Eyes Wide Open." It gets a little repetitive, but this will be different from the final version also.. actually, apart from "Larks' IV," nothing here is repeated from any other release - and even that is added as a live version without the lyrics of the original. I've always thought that the piece had enough menace and doom of its own without the depressing words, and here I think they've proven me right. Frightening stuff.

Never a band to just put out what's expected, Crimson have stuffed this one full of other little goodies.. Adrian's haikus, Robert's Soundscapes (the mysterious "Mie Gakure"), Pat's rhythmic noodlings ("ShoGaNai"), and a hidden track at the end that can only be described as just plain bizarre. Those curious folk new to the current KC lineup are probably better off starting with The ConstruKction of Light, but anyone curious about the group's future will be well served here. It ultimately feels like a tease since this is only a sketchy glimpse.. but it's still quite a fascinating glimpse. Get in on this.