Three of a Perfect Pair by King Crimson

Three of a Perfect Pair, King Crimson's tenth studio album, came out on E.G. in 1984 and closed the book on the band Robert Fripp had rebuilt three years earlier. It was the last studio record from the quartet of Fripp, Adrian Belew, Tony Levin and Bill Bruford, who split later that year, capping a run that began with Discipline and Beat.

The recipe is the same heady brew: interlocking guitars from Fripp and Belew that chatter and circle like gamelan patterns, Levin's Chapman stick burrowing underneath, Bruford's drums and percussion snapping every which way, and Belew's slightly unhinged vocals up top. The title track is as close as this band came to a jittery pop single, and "Sleepless" pulses with a nervous, clubby throb. All four would turn up again in the bigger lineup that made THRAK in 1995.

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