STARDUST WE ARE

Stardust We Are, the masterpiece by The Flower Kings and their best album to date. How many prog albums can compete with this? Not many. If it were my choice, I'd remove In The Court Of The Crimson King and replace it with this absolute masterpiece of a prog album. This deserves so much more praise than it's getting. This is easily a top 20 best prog album of all time, it's got all the right pieces, it's got the longer songs, it's got short interludes, it's got a perfect epic, it's got atmosphere and structure and the songs are just expertly written and just so well structured. To put this album even outside the top 250 is a total crime. Everyone plays at an unbelievable calibre, Jamie Salazar on drums (probably the best drummer in Prog), Roine Stolt, a great guitarist and songwriter, Hasse Fröiberg, a good singer and great guitarist, Tomas Bodin, Come on... Tomas Bodin is easily the most underrated keyboard player in prog now. Hasse Bruniusson does his great stuff with percussion and of course Ulf Wallander is an absolutely amazing Brass player. Do I really need to continue speaking? Actually I will, anything to make sure my point gets across. I'd put this in the top 5 best prog albums of all time, it's an absolute masterpiece from start to finish. Many think that The Flower Kings have an issue with Quantity over Quality, not on this album. Its Quantity and that Quantity has pure Quality. I want to explain every song on this album and give my review on every song, so why not I do that, right here right now?

In The Eyes Of The World | A powerful opener, staggering and it knocks you down in the first 5 seconds. It's just a brilliantly written song by an excellent band. Need I actually go on?

A Room With A Few | Tomas Bodin's little noodle here, its emotional and it's just grabbing. It's an intoxicating experience from beginning to end and it works as a perfect interlude.

Just This Once | Some jazz, some soft bits, and some fusion licks. Can't get much better than this, it's got emotion, it's got spirit, and it's just a hard hitting piece by the band. Period.

Church Of Your Heart | Church Organs, Harmonies, Mellotrons, Large Soundscapes, seriously doesn't get better than this. This is prog to the absolute max, how people are turned off by this is totally beyond me.

Poor Mr. Rain's Ordinary Guitar | A Very Steve Hackett piece, nice nylon guitars, great chords and again, a brilliant interlude.

The Man Who Walked With Kings | Also a brilliant piece, I... am running out of things to say but seriously, this is great.

Circus Brimstone | Very quirky, got a brilliant turn to things. It switches gears from the slower pieces with a slow atmospheric structure. It shows that this band isn't scared of being a bit more experimental. Again... do I really need to explain why this is great? Do I really?

Crying Clown | A very weird and quirky interlude yet again, but its brilliant in it's own way and it fits the album.

Compassion | The track with two, a 4 minute song with a hidden track in it? Sign me up, this really is quite a way to end off the first disc, with two songs in one. Both are very weird and very atmospheric, and both share their rightful spot on this album.

First disc had been review and what have we learned? The first disc shows the right stuff for being a perfect prog album. So shall we continue to the next disc? I think it's best I say... we will and we are going to continue.

Pipes Of Piece | An Interlude with a reprise of the last song, which really doesn't reprise.. what's the word for this? Doesn't matter, this is still a great interlude, well done Tomas Bodin, your writing here is amazing.

The End Of Innocence | A bit of a longer piece, but this album has a bunch of long songs, this one is a bit boring but it's still good. It's probably the weakest song on the album, despite it being a slow and more melodic piece, it just suffers.

The Merrygoround | A faster and more upbeat piece and a big improvement over the previous, surprisingly, this album doesn't have very many duds, just the one. This song is surely no dud, it's got everyone playing to the max and it shows once again they aren't after to take a risk and go into quirky territory.

Don Of The Universe | What an amazing piece, an instrumental with Sax, powerful guitars and just a wall of atmosphere and emotion. Excellent soloing from all on this song, well written and just perfect in the end.

A Day At The Mall | Another interlude and it's great once again. I can't say much about this one, it's another interlude.

Different People | The song rock attempt on this album, it's good and it's deserves a spot on this work by The Flower Kings. Sure it's not the best song on the album but it's still great.

Kingdom Of Lies | This is one of the best song on the album, along with the opener, A Room With A View and Church Of Your Heart. This has emotion and atmosphere, structure and a well deserved spot on this album.

If 28 | Yet another interlude, great again but it's an interlude... how much can I say about it?

Ghost and the Red Cloud | The Last song on the album and yet the album isn't over yet, even though this could be a good way to end the album... it's not over here.

Hotel Nirvana | This seriously is the best interlude on the album, it's got atmosphere, its haunting, it's dark and its gorgeous... it's the perfect way to open for the masterpiece on the album.

Stardust We Are | The perfect prog epic is what they want to accomplish, and that's what they accomplished. Roine, is this really only close to divine? Sorry Roine, but this is divine. This is perfection, Flower Kings perfection. Everything about this is just perfect, it has its references, and it has absolutely no filler. Need I say that this album is perfect? In fact I will, this album is Perfect. Even if it has weaker songs, it's still perfect.

Seriously, Progarchives, I'm on my knees here begging, this deserves a spot at the top. This is a prog rock masterpiece unlike any other. There will never be an album that deserves a spot nearly as much as this one.

Bottom line? This is the best prog album of the last 25 years.