This is the second time I have blogged about Lizard, King Crimson‘s third studio album. In my earlier post, I noted that Robert Fripp had described it as ‘unlistenable’, and respectfully disagreed. This time, I will not be pulling my punches. The 2025 David Singleton Elemental Mix reveals in astonishing detail the immensely creative talents of the individual performers, as if wax-filled ears have been cleansed with fat-busting brushes bathed in essential oils. It’s not quite a different album, but it is definitely a different and hugely enjoyable experience.

“Lizard is the one album which, in its initial incarnation, never quite convinced me. And yet these Elemental mixes, with their opportunity to look ‘under the hood’ of the album, revealed something fresh, wonderful and astonishing.”

David Singleton, on the DGM Live website

I was introduced to King Crimson at a free open-air concert in the summer of 1969 and, for me, it was love at first song. That was more than 55 years ago now. But you never forget your first love. The memory of that day has faded somewhat over the years, but it has been refreshed more than once with remasters and remixes of that early material.

The Elemental mix of KC’s scaly lizard has, once again, revitalised what was perhaps my favourite album in my student days. It is the only album I have in multiple versions. The original was wonderful, the 40th anniversary Steven Wilson remix was better, but this latest mix is better still. If you like where prog rock, jazz and avant-garde overlap, Lizard is the album, and David Singleton’s Elemental mix is the one to get.