Adrian Belew: Side One : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

These two CDs are part of a trilogy that guitarist Adrian Belew has recorded while on hiatus from King Crimson. The titles evoke that distant era when records came with two sides of music; Belew made quite a few of them with Crimson, Talking Heads and Frank Zappa. There is also a literal division here into the action-guitar and painterly-lyricism sides of Belew's music. One opens with three power-trio blasts featuring Primus bassist Les Claypool and Tool drummer Danny Carey, then maintains a Crimson-like fire the rest of the way, even though Belew plays almost everything himself. The overcast ambience and haiku verse of his songs on Two highlight the anxious melancholy that often lurks under the modal dance and emergency-siren sustain of Belew's guitar loops and solos. You can enjoy one Side without the other, but you need both to know the whole Belew. You'll want the imminent Side Three too: He promises more hot rock with that killing One band.