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The Flower Kings - Flower Power CD (album) cover

FLOWER POWER

The Flower Kings

 

Symphonic Prog

3.96 | 603 ratings

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hdfisch
Prog Reviewer
3 stars After the double strike two years before with STARDUST WE ARE this was their next one, this time two CDs filled up with even 141 minutes of music.

The first CD is mainly consisting of the great one-hour suite GARDEN OF DREAMS. It comprises 18 single tracks, but listening to it, one really gets the impression that it's one magnum opus. There are wonderful melodies, great sonic textures and it's full of rhythm breaks and shifts. The performance of all musicians is brilliant as always. Of course it has some stronger and some weaker moments, but actually I could not name any outstanding one, I usually love to listen to it just on the whole whenever I've got one hour of free time. For example the moment when Don't Let The Devil In is coming in is one of the highlights of the suite. Although it's like been waken up cruelly from a very pleasant dream this piece is really set at the right place before the music would become too dreamy and possibly lose the attraction of the listener. Overall it's a very well composed long suite. Last track on this CD Astral Dog is an amazing jazz-fusion piece and very much ZAPPA-reminiscent featuring great guitar playing.

Second CD is starting rather weak I've got to say and this reminds me a bit to the last double album. Deaf, Numb & Blind is not a bad one, but they were doing already better long tracks, this one is a bit too shallow. Stupid Girl is a nice but rather pop-ish song in the beginning, but has a great guitar solo later on. The first one which is able to catch my attention is Corruption, a quite catchy rocking one in a reggae rhythm with nice keyboards. Power Of Kindness is a very contemplative and quiet organ instrumental by Tomas Bodin, quite nice and relaxing! Psychedelic Postcard starts with some distorted vocals, has a quite lush part in the middle and some rather YES- reminiscent harmonies with guitar and keyboards in the final part. It's one of those TFK- songs which develop to a quite interesting and versatile one after a rather weak beginning. A quite good one, but as well not really a highlight. Hudson River Sirens Call 1998 is a very psychedelic and strange instrumental and can't convince me at all. Magic Pie is a rather pop-ish and sob stuff like ballade sung by Hasse Froberg, it's working out a bit better with Roine Stolt's voice in the next one Painter. Calling Home is again not a real highlight and Afterlife is a reprise of the suite theme.

As a SUMMARY I've got to say the second CD is very weak and lacking absolutely some highlight, most of the songs are rather mediocre and leaves the impression that the album has been just "filled up" with some leftover material. First CD is excellent but I think this is not sufficient to rate the whole album higher than 3 stars. I would say overall FLOWER POWER is even a bit weaker than STARDUST WE ARE and the only really essential and excellent double album from them is UNFOLD THE FUTURE!

hdfisch | 3/5 |

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