Robert Fripp - Exposure. 2-disc remaster, 2006.

I will not rehash the checkered history of Robert Fripp's Exposure album. For those who would like to read up on it, I will refer you to The Exposure Pages.

Here's the scoop on the new release:

Disc one contains the entire album in its original 1979 form. This version has not been available for over twenty years and had never been released on CD before.

Disc two contains the Definitive Edition version of the album except that the songs "Disengage", "Chicago", and "NY3" have been replaced by previously unreleased versions with Daryl Hall on vocals. The lyrics to "Chicago" are identical to previous releases. "Disengage" contains different lyrics, written by Daryl Hall, and has been retitled "Disengage II". Hall, also, wrote lyrics to "NY3", which has been retitled "New York, New York, New York", and his vocals replace the tape of the domestic dispute ("Your house, my house").

Disc two, also, contains bonus tracks: previously unreleased Daryl Hall versions of "Exposure" and "Mary", the Definitive Edition versions of "Disengage" and "NY3, and a previously unreleased version of "Chicago" with Peter Hammill and Terre Roche on vocals.

The Definitive Edition version of "Chicago" is not included on the collection, but few will miss it. I will explain.

The new bonus track of "Chicago" is identical to the Definitive Edition version until the word "obscenities". Peter Hammill's phrasing of the word "obscenities" is different and the rest of his vocals have been replaced by Terre Roche's.

Here is the irony: From the word "obscenities" on, Peter Hammill's vocal from original version (which is on disc one) and the Definitive Edition version were from the same take. What this means is that all of the pieces of the definitive Edition version are on this collection, they are just not on the same track. There is method to Robert Fripp's madness.

The sound quality of this collection is superb, as are the liner notes. (Hall's lyrics for "Disengage II" and "New York, New York, New York" are not included, but this is a minor quibble.) Despite the subtitle of the 1990 release, this is truly the definitive edition.

(For rippers who want to try to recreate the "Daryl Hall" version of the album should replace "I May Not Have Had Enough Of Me But I've Had Enough Of You" with "NYCNY" from Daryl Hall's Sacred Songs album. It's not the same version as the original test pressing, but it's as close as you are ever going to get.)

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Robert Fripp - Exposure

Disc One - First Edition
All tracks are from the original 1979 vinyl mix.

1. Preface
2. You Burn Me Up I'm A Cigarette
3. Breathless
4. Disengage
5. North Star
6. Chicago
7. NY3
8. Mary
9. Exposure
10. Häaden Two
11. Urban Landscape
12. I May Not Have Had Enough Of Me But I've Had Enough Of You
13. First Inaugural Address To I.A.C.E Sherborne House
14. Water Music I
15. Here Comes The Flood
16. Water Music II
17. Postscript

Disc Two - Third Edition
Tracks are from the 1990 Definitive Edition version of the 1983 remix unless otherwise indicated.

1. Preface
2. You Burn Me Up I'm A Cigarette
3. Breathless
4. Disengage II (previously unreleased with vocals and alternate lyrics by Daryl Hall)
5. North Star
6. Chicago (previously unreleased with vocals by Daryl Hall)
7. New York, New York, New York (previously unreleased with vocals and alternate lyrics by Daryl Hall)
8. Mary
9. Exposure
10. Häaden Two
11. Urban Landscape
12. I May Not Have Had Enough Of Me But I've Had Enough Of You
13. First Inaugural Address To I.A.C.E Sherborne House
14. Water Music I
15. Here Comes The Flood
16. Water Music II
17. Postscript
18. Exposure (previously unreleased with vocals by Daryl Hall)
19. Mary (previously unreleased with vocals by Daryl Hall)
20. Disengage
21. Chicago (previously unreleased with vocals by Peter Hammill and Terre Roche)
22. NY3