Flower Kings Appreciation Thread

Horizons wrote: Destined Solitaire is by FAR their best album, an album that perfectly captures the band's brilliance in their heavier side as well as the quirky symphonic approaches they specialize in. Recommended place to start.  For modern symphonic Mike, i would suggest to you.. Echolyn - The End is Beautiful The Tea Club - Quickly, Quickly, Quickly IQ - The Seventh House IQ is the only Neo-Prog band i like. Not sure why, but they actually interest me. I know the singer is awesome though. That's one of three albums i have by them and is my favorite. They're are prolly better albums out there that would be a better recommendation, but from the three i have (7th House, Frequency, and Ever) i like it most atm. You prolly have heard these guys and this is a useless paragraph - oh well.

I'd have to say "Sleeping In Traffic 2" is Beardfish's best album, but Destined Solitaire and Mammoth are not far behind. Sleeping In Traffic 1 and their recent The Void are also very good. Haven't heard their debut, but the second album The Sane Day has a lot of good stuff, but also a lot of filler.

I don't like IQ. I've tried them multiple times, mostly Frequency, or whichever album came out in 2009.

I've listened to Echolyn's "Mei" album about 5 times, but that epic tune didn't really do anything for me, and never made me want to explore further.

I'm not necessarily looking to get into a lot of new stuff, as I've amassed a ton of music in the past 2 1/2 years, that I'm still trying to catch up.


Edited by darkshade - June 13 2013 at 14:41

dennismoore wrote: rushfan4 wrote: I've been listening to Simon Says today. Another modern Swedish symphonic prog band.   Ok, you've got my interest....   a little description please?...  english vocals?....  tell us more please   I have been enjoying the new Sanguine Hum.  Very original, super clean guitars in lots of odd time meters with good harmonic resolves and organic rhodes & hammond keys....  UK band as well...

English vocals and the usual suspects of guitars, bass, drums, and keyboards with a bit of flute.

This is their most epic track from their 3rd album Tardigrade. If you like it you might want to check them out further.

   

rushfan4 wrote: English vocals and the usual suspects of guitars, bass, drums, and keyboards with a bit of flute. This is their most epic track from their 3rd album Tardigrade.

M27Barney wrote: I don't see how anybody could like sound chaser, and to be over  > GOD - Hmmmm just seen the link with the Flokis there.....The Live Version of GOD on Shows is a helluva lot better than the studio version IMHO. Like I said I saw Genesis in 1977 - and NOBODY just NOBODY plays that sort of floaty Ghostly guitar style that Hackett Perfected - Stolt possibly beats Hackett for emotional stringsmanship - but I think that for an ambience creating backdrop Hackett was supreme....So then in 1978 - Genesis decided to do pop...as if they didn't already have more money than they could spend since they were brought up in houses where it takes you twenty minutes to pop next door and borrow a cup of caviar from your equally loaded neighbour. Jesus - Rutherford and Banks had childhood homes with gardens that were so big that they were used to Land fully laden B52s when they got lost heading for Mildenhall.......It REALLY pissed me off I can tell you - my favourite band going to sh*t...

Roj wrote: I think Gus once described Simon Says as like The Flower Kings on speed  and that's a pretty fair description. I'll second the recommendation for Sleeping In Traffic Part 2, Beardfish's best imho.  Part 1 and Destined Solitaire are close for next best. I'll also chime in in favour of IQ's best as The Seventh House, with The Wake as my second favourite.  I've been a fan of theirs since the early 80s and am proud to say I have numbered copy number 12 of Tales From The Lush Attic as well as an original copy of their first cassette album 7 Stories Into 8.

That was indeed my description, though I only have the Tardigrade album, which is quite good.

For me Destined Solitaire is their best by far, and what changed me from a casual listener of their stuff to a die hard fan.  Of course, the others you mention are all great (though the title track for Sleeping In Traffic just doesn't seem that great to me........I enjoy it, but it seems much less concise and fun than their other material......of course, it IS 35 minutes long, so maybe they just were too ambitious with that one, even though it was their first song according to Rickard).

IQ is also the only neo prog band I've ever gotten into.  They have some really good stuff, and Seventh House is excellent.  My favorite of theirs though, is The Wake.

zumacraig wrote: M27Barney wrote: I don't see how anybody could like sound chaser, and to be over  > GOD - Hmmmm just seen the link with the Flokis there.....The Live Version of GOD on Shows is a helluva lot better than the studio version IMHO. Like I said I saw Genesis in 1977 - and NOBODY just NOBODY plays that sort of floaty Ghostly guitar style that Hackett Perfected - Stolt possibly beats Hackett for emotional stringsmanship - but I think that for an ambience creating backdrop Hackett was supreme....So then in 1978 - Genesis decided to do pop...as if they didn't already have more money than they could spend since they were brought up in houses where it takes you twenty minutes to pop next door and borrow a cup of caviar from your equally loaded neighbour. Jesus - Rutherford and Banks had childhood homes with gardens that were so big that they were used to Land fully laden B52s when they got lost heading for Mildenhall.......It REALLY pissed me off I can tell you - my favourite band going to sh*t... The songs on Genesis through We Can't Dance, were not that bad.  I think the production was the culprit.  Not one great 70s artist came out of the 80s unscathed.  Very, very frustrating.  I'd love to hear Fading Lights with 70s era keyboards.  Near the end, Banks was nothing on stage.  Those crappy digital keys did not serve him well.

I grew up in the 80's, so naturally I despised Genesis.  In college, I had bought a Pink Floyd bootleg from a local shop....it was so horrible sound wise I decided to return it to the store.  They, of course, would not allow me to return it, but they would buy it back..........for less than half what I paid for it.  This left me with about $10, so I browsed the store.  I had recalled a good friend telling me that Genesis used to be good, back in the 70's, and that Peter Gabriel used to be their singer (at the time, I didn't care for him either, having only heard Games Without Frontiers and Sledgehammer).  So when I saw Genesis Live, the picture of Gabriel in his crazy Apocalypse in 9/8 costume, along with only 5 tracks listed, I decided to give it a go.  I loved it from the opening chords of Watcher to the final notes of The Knife, first time through.  It actually took me a while to get into the studio albums after that, because I so much loved the mix on that album (guitar and bass high in the mix, keys low.......almost the opposite of the studio albums).  However, they became a fast favorite of mine and I love the Gabriel stuff above all to this day.   It took me years to get Trick and Wind, but I agree they are great albums.  I remember that my roommate in college like Duke a lot, and I remember that I enjoyed it as well, though not nearly as much as the Gabriel era stuff.  I listed to And Then There Were Three a couple times when I worked at a video rental / music store, and just found it to be pretty bland...........better than Abacab and Invisible Touch, but nothing that made we want to own a copy.

Basically, I just think that without Gabriel and Hackett, they were a much less interesting band.

So I had the chance to listen to some of the Fan Club CD's this morning and it was a bit hit and miss surprisingly enough.  I will say this much, listening to "The Cinema Show" reminded me how much I enjoy Mr. Stolt's guitar.  I haven't listened to a lot of FK as of late, I think it's time to change that a little bit.  I've got "Stardust We Are" (the album) spinning as we speak.

Swedish Prog Mafia wrote: Hello Everyone, just thought I'd join in and say: The Flower Kings is my favorite band Some Trivia: *Favorite album: Space Revolver *Favorite Songs: Monsters & Men, I Am the Sun Part One, The Big Puzzle *First heard of the band when checking out Dream Theater & Transatlantic *Never saw them live, but I saw 'The Power of Two' concert in tilburg (Agents Of Mercy + Karmakanic) and I saw the Transatlantic concert on High Voltage (the one with Steve Hackett )

Welcome to the group!  You have a good user name for this group

Your favorites are good, though I personally don't care much for Monsters&Men, but plenty of others here love it as well.

Saw Power Of Two as well, in Pittsburgh PA, and have seen the Flower Kings 3 times (the first time in 2001, the most recent just a few weeks ago).  Never seen Transatlantic, sadly (but since they will tour again, I have another chance!).