LOOK AT YOU NOW

After a long spell, I´m back to ProgArchives. I decided to start by the new Flower Kings album, Look at You Now, because I think this is really an important CD, at least for me. I must say I was not specially taken by the post Tomas Bodin FK albums . Islands (2020) for instance, is one I still find hard to relate. Its follow up did not move me much either, and I tended to think that the band lost something around the pandemic year. I wondered if the last great abum to bear the Flower King moniker was 2018´s The Flower King: Manifesto of An Alchemist, even if it is cited as a Roine Stolt solo album (but it is not, really).

It all changed with Look at You Now: although this record follows the group´s recent trend to keep on writing shorter songs, this CD has a freshness and energy I haven´t seen in any FK output for years. Superficially the new songs seem not as good as they really are, but upon listening to the album a few more times, I got the same feeling I used to when I heard their 90´s classics. The band is in great shape and it was a joy to hear those classic guitar lines, very much in the vein of Steve Howe, back into the tunes. Was it something to do with the chemistry of having brother Michael Stolt back in the group? did it help the songs turned out so much better and inspired?

Whatever the true reasons, the fact remains that this CD moved me like the Flower Kings used to. Of course it is not another Retropolis or Stardust We Are, but the spirit is back. It´s like they now don´t need to write an epic of sorts to make some point. In fact, the short songs sound just like they should. Look at You Now is like a mix of the "old" Flower Kings with the more concise stuff they´re writing lately. It seems they finally found the right balance and I hope they continue in this path. With no fillers and with an excellent flow, it´s a real nice surprise.

Final rating: something between 3,5 and 4 stars. It may not be essential, but it is more than just very good.