Larks' Tongues in Aspic

After the Islands-era group came apart, Fripp spent the summer of 1972 putting a new band together. He and Bruford jammed at Bruford's house in May, and Fripp has said the idea of pairing Bruford with Jamie Muir came to him while he sat in the bath there. Wetton and Bruford told their old bands they were leaving on 19 July, and David Cross completed the five. They broke deliberately from the old repertoire.

Violin replaced the woodwinds as the main melodic colour. Muir's percussion included chimes, bells, mbira, musical saw, shakers, rattles, an autoharp, drums and chains, along with found objects such as sheet metal, toys and baking trays. Fripp wrote the verses of Easy Money and Wetton added the chorus later. The title came from Muir. Fripp said it means something precious that is stuck but visible, encased in form. Exiles grew from the Mellotron introduction of Mantra, a piece the 1969 band played, and Part One reworked a piece the Islands band had recorded under the name A Peacemaking Stint Unrolls.

The band toured before making the record. Bruford said they wanted to tour first because they had only just met. A first attempt at Wessex Studios failed, and Fripp said Wessex could not find a drum sound however hard it tried. The sessions moved to Command Studios in Piccadilly Circus in January 1973. Wetton later said the album did not capture what the band could do live, and Muir left in February 1973, soon after it was finished, which makes this the only King Crimson album with this lineup.

It came out through Island in Britain and Atlantic in the United States and Canada, reaching 20 and 61 on the two charts. Billboard called it "without doubt the finest set yet" from the band. Rolling Stone's Alan Niester gave a mixed review but praised the violin as "tasteful". Bill Martin wrote in 1998 that it was the most formally inventive progressive rock record of 1973. Robert Christgau said of the instrumental work that it "doesn't quite jell". Rolling Stone later placed it at number 20 on its list of the 50 greatest prog rock albums. A 2012 box set, The Complete Recordings, gathered every available recording of this five-man lineup.