ADAM & EVE

Unlike most FK albums, this one is actually listenable, partly because it's not nearly as AOR/Rock-oriented as their previous work, but instead mines some less predictable melodic avenues, but also because Roine Stolt doesn't handle the main vocals.

Not that Hasse Fröberg is all that great either, the way he keeps straining his voice continuously, but at least you don't get that forced Stolt vibrato and ridiculous English pronunciation; although that does feature in quite a few spots with odd things like "dance" being pronounced "danze" for no good reason. This is weird especially since the "z" sound in English is not at all a Swedish sound and Swedes tend to *not* use it at all in English, so stuffing it in where it doesn't belong is completely counterintuitive. Surely someone should be able to coach Roine on this quite simple point?

And now there's a third vocalist, yet another strained singer. It seems that this is something that the FK camp likes a lot, which is strange, because most of the hallmark singers of old-school Prog are very natural-voiced and relaxed (with 70's-era Geddy Lee being a marked exception). It's sad, because with a good vocalist that could pronounce English and write lyrics that aren't quite so silly, FK could be quite a good band instead of producing near-miss after near-miss.

As they stand now, they're good instrumentalists and composers, but that just doesn't add up to a complete package.