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The Flower Kings - Back in the World of Adventures CD (album) cover

BACK IN THE WORLD OF ADVENTURES

The Flower Kings

 

Symphonic Prog

4.03 | 711 ratings

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UMUR
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars "Back in the World of Adventures" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish progressive rock act The Flower Kings. The album was released through Foxtrot Records in September 1995. The Flower Kings was formed in 1994 by lead vocalist/guitarist Roine Stolt and the musicians who had toured in support of Stolt´s fourth solo album "The Flower King (1994)".

Stylistically The Flower Kings play early 70s influenced symphonic progressive rock in the vein of Yes and Genesis with the occasional nod towards 70s hard rock like Deep Purple and Uriah Heep. It´s mostly the former mentioned who come to mind, because of the structural complexity and adventurous nature of the compositions, but also because of the often heavy busy bass playing, the virtuoso synth/keyboard playing, and the multi-harmony vocals. The Flower Kings are much more than just a Yes clone though, and the music on "Back in the World of Adventures" is highly eclectic and more avant garde oriented rock artists like King Crimson and Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention can also be added to the influences along with various jazz/rock and blues traits.

Roine Stolt sings most of the vocals on the album (Hasse Fröberg provides additional lead vocals), and he has a pleasant and soothing voice and vocal style. He is not an exceptional vocalist who can sing all registers or anything like that, but his performance here is still strong and his voice suits the material well. The rest of the lineup also consists of skilled musicians, and it´s not surprising to see a seasoned veteran like percussionist Hans Bruniusson (Samla Mammas Manna) credited for playing on the album. Keyboard player Tomas Bodin is exceptionally skilled too, and the strong playing rhythm section of bassist Michael Stolt and drummer Jaime Salazar deliver both an organic, technically skilled, and adventurous backbone to the music. Fröberg is not heard as much on this album as he would be on the subsequent releases, but he still adds his touch here and there, which is also the role of saxophonist Ulf Wallander. The saxophone parts are not dominant on the album, but when they appear they add a lot to the soundscape.

The 70:28 minutes long album features many great tracks and the eclectic influences also makes the album quite the varied listen. Much of the music is instrumental, but there are also tracks which feature vocal sections, like "World of Adventure", "Go West Judas", "Train To Nowhere", and the psychadelic, happy, and almost funky "My Cosmic Lover", so there is generally a good balance between the instrumental sectsions and the parts featuring vocals. Some of the highlights of the album are "World of Adventure", "Go West Judas" (which is a track featuring a darker atmosphere than most of the other material on the album), "Train To Nowhere" (a beautiful ballad type track with a strong and memorable vocal melody and a clever arrangement), and the epic closer "Big Puzzle", but the two longer instrumentals on the album "Atomic Prince / Kaleidoscope" and "Theme For A Hero" are also strong compositions.

"Back in the World of Adventures" features a detailed, powerful, and organic sounding production job, which suits the material perfectly, and upon conclusion it´s through and through a high quality progressive rock release and a great debut album by The Flower Kings. Some would argue that this should be considered the sophomore studio album by the band, as it more or less features the same lineup and a similar music style as Stolt´s "The Flower King (1994)" album, but the fact is that this is the first album released under The Flower Kings monicker.

UMUR | 4/5 |

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