STARDUST WE ARE

After hearing Unfold the Future, I sort of had an itch to listen to more material from The Flower Kings. I really digged the music on the previous album I reviewed of them, and I really wanted to check more of them out. Their symphonic sound and their beautiful vocal performances always got to me, so I just started to have an itch for the band. I wanted to hear the band more and more, and I wanted to love every bit of them. So I figured, if I went all out on one of their more longer albums, why not do the same on another long piece they have created. I decided to check out Stardust We Are since I heard it was one of their best. Now has my Flower Kings itch been scratched, yes, yes it has.

The has that same wonderful sound I expect from The Flower Kings. Symphonic, and rocking. However it has a bit of a psychedelic-astral like edge to it. I feel like they took some notes from bands like Hawkwind or even Pink Floyd. It also feels a lot weirder. I noticed in tracks like Circus Brimstone and Don of the Universe that they had more whimsical and downright odd at times. It adds a lot of charm to the album that not even Unfold the Future might've had, and it definitely works in it's favor.

However, this album has something that Unfold the Future excel in, and that is the fact that every track is a gem stone. Now the lot of the tracks are extremely well made, however there are some more shorter tracks that are 1 minute or less. These tracks sort of mess up the album a bit due to the fact I feel like they are purely unnecessary and are just filler. Not only that but if they had to add them onto the album, they should've just put them within a track they come after or before. This also has the same problem I had with Unfold the Future. I would totally preferred if they removed a few tracks off this album and put them on singles or EPs, or put them in the album as bonus tracks for a deluxe release. It sort diminishes it's replay value quite a bit. On top of that, while I did say the weirdness it has gives it quite a bit of charm, it also has a weakness in that it could make new comers to the band turn away because of the interesting routes that band sometimes takes with these songs.

All my ramblings aside, I still really liked this album. It's whimsical and weird, and had a ton of strong moments, however it definitely has it's fair share of issues, maybe a bit more than I'd like the admit. Still a great album though.