HYDROPHONIA

This record has it's fine moments and his bad. Cosmic lodge is a great start, Roine Stolt shows what he is capable of, here. Some melodies are a bit annoying, but globally it's a nice start. Shipbuilding dissapointed me, the melodies are annoying and stay, there are a few nice parts in the middle, but the beginning and the end didn't quite catch my eye (or ear, I must say). Little cottage by the see wasn't quite an eyeopener either (or earopener, I must say). It's the worst track of the album, in my opinion. Wreck of HMS Nemesis is the longest and best track on the album. It has tonal weirdness and nice guitars. The mainmelody starts a bit predictable, but suddenly sounds wonderful when the medieval sounding melodie jumps in. Bizarre Seahorse Sex Attack is also a very good song. It is a very Zappaesque song. He could have surprised me with some typically Zappaesque triplets, pentuplets or septuplets, but the fact that their weren't any also surprised me. Nuclear Nemo is also quite well, apart from the main melody. Hydrophonia, which is the title track is also a nice song, but not very special. The Lobsterland Groove is a bit of a dull groove and not very nice. The Seafood Kitchen Thing starts whith the annoying main melodie of Cosmic lodge, but has overall about the same level.

It's not a record that made me very enthousiastic, but it's nice to listen now and then, avoiding 'Shipbuilding', 'Little Cottage by the Sea' and 'Lobsterland Groove'. It's nice that it's an instrumental album, because I'm more amazed by the instrumental Flower Kings than the sung parts. The same counts for Roine Stolt's solo album, I think. Three stars