SPACE REVOLVER

After two massive double album studio albums came Space Revolver. I must admit I did not really like this album when it first came out. The focus had changed and the introduction fo new bassist Jonas Reingold (of ex hard rock band Midnight Sun) altered the balance within the chemistry of the band. While Michael Stolt was very good but subtle, Reingold is flashy and flamboyant. I´m not saying none of them is better nor worse than the other, only different. The TFK sound became more jazzy, a little less melodic, it changed.

But after a few more listenings I found myself enjoying the album more and more. In fact this is maybe the very last TFK CD to really capture my imagination as a whole. The songwriting is stunning good and the sequence of songs works better than the previous two ones. Even Frömberg´s very simple acoustic You Don´t Know What You Got falls beautifully in place (I don´t really know why so many other reviewers hated this tune so much. Even Roine Stolt has written far worse things). I Am The Sun is easily one of the group´s best epics, while A Kings Prayer proved that Roine Stolt was sitll able to write simpler songs with a lot of emotion (the vocal parts of Stolt and Frömberg are great, and the guitar solo is very moving). There are few fillers, and none is really bad.

So, all in all, I think this CD is quite different from their first five, but it still has the spark and the ingenious mark that made The Flower Kings in general and Roine Stolt in particular, the famed artists they really are. Not really a classic, to TFK´s standards, but a must have for any prog lover.