Flower Kings Appreciation Thread

^ I picked Agents of Mercy up a few weeks ago and gave it a listen and was equally underwhelmed on the first listen.  I've been in a Dream Theater / King's X mode lately so I haven't given it any further listens yet, but yeah, my first impression was much the same as yours.

Hmm, I don't know this 'Susie' character, she sounds as if she bears further investigation.

Hmm, it appears that yet another of my tangents has brought on a call to action...

Though, Pablo is still around, he's gone went and changed his name and goes as "The Quiet One" these days.

On a Flower King side project related note, I just noticed that Karmakanic and Agents of Mercy are coming to Pittsburgh in October.  Shoot, I guess I'm going to have to go to this one as well.  I never thought of Pittsburgh as the hotbed of prog but shoot, we had The Flower Kings, Spock's Beard, Neal Morse and Izz last year.  This year it's getting even better:  IQ, It Bites, Phideaux, Singularity, King's X, Glass Hammer and now Karmakanic AND Agents of Mercy on the same night...I'm thinking a group jam at the end of the night with a few Flower King songs.

I'm pretty freakin excited.

^   Where a TFK appreciation thread can lead to !! Have we gone nuts or something ?

^Come to think of it: it would be ideal for me to play the whole top 50 I displayed on page 2 on my death bed. That would be a great death !   Only disadvantage would be that I would die a very slow death (something like a whole working day  )

Edited by progrules - June 23 2009 at 05:09

Roland113 wrote: Twenty Three

See, personally, I give IKEA by Night five stars for the humor factor alone.  I always include IKEA on any of the "Flower Kings'" compilations that I list on here just for the amusement.

I do enjoy both discs of Garden of Dreams Stupid Girl being one of my second tier favorites of theirs.  Personally, I would say that I'm ambivalent at best on Magic Pie.  First couple of times I heard it I flat out didn't like it.  It's grown to apathy from there.  I figure if I listen to it enough times it may become tolerable.

Oh, I just listened to IKEA by night for the seventeenth time during the typing of this e-mail.

eighteen...ninteen

^ I have to say that on first hearing Magic Pie did absolutely nothing for me, I didn't like it at all.  As such it was one that stood out, but for the wrong reason!!

infandous wrote: Well, GoD is definitely an Epic with a capitol E.  Supper's Ready is essentially "a collection of songs, some joined some not" as you say.  But GoD has more connecting material than that song.  Melodies, words, both are refrained throughout the entire thing.  I think it hangs together surprisingly well as a single entity.  But I understand why others don't necessarily see it that way.  Thick As A Brick was built piece by piece, just as GoD was.  Anyway, give it time and you will see the cohesivness of it.  But even if you don't, you'll still like it  Actually, one of the things I love about the Flower Kings is that they referecence many of their previous songs on each consecutive album.  Sometimes it's quite hard to discern, other times fairly easy.  GoD is a microcosm of their whole body of work if you ask me (at least, up to that point).  Although, I guess at nearly 60 minutes long, it's more of a macrocosm

Nov wrote: progrules wrote: Just checked the line up on Keyholder and it appears it's the same line up as on Mindrev. Nov, are you sure this is a great album ?   Hang on, let me just check........   Yeah, someone a few posts ago said:   "Regarding Kaipa, I've got a few albums but the one I would recommend to ALL of you here is "Keyholder". It is a truly stunning piece of work and one of my top 10 albums from the last 15 years or so. Seriously  - all TFK fans will love Keyholder!!"   Are you not bugged by their vocals like The Captain and me?   I normally am bugged by over-histrionic vocals. For example, I can't listen "I Am" by Tomas Bodin because of the vocals.   This has never been a problem for me with "Keyholder" maybe because the music is so extraordinarily good. There's lots of playing on the album with amazing instrumental sections and the vocals fit the dramatic music for me.   I have got the 2 albums either side of Keyholder but never listen to them     Maybe I should go for one of their seventies albums ?   That's up to you. It's like 2 different bands.   I've got a couple of the 70s albums and they are exactly what you'd imagine :- not-quite-as-good-as-Genesis-or-Camel-mid-70s-prog.   Tell you what, pm me your address and I'll send you a copy of Keyholder.

Falling behind a bit here

70's Kaipa is good stuff, don't let anyone tell you any different   I've had the second and third albums of them for a few years now.  A Scandinavian Camel is probably as good a description as any.  They are not as good as any other Roine stuff I've heard (never heard anything he did in the 80's), but they are definetly worth a listen IMO.

Keyholder is an excellent album, probably my favorite of the second era Kaipa, though I like their first one (the previous album, Notes From The Past) quite a bit as well.  I think Keyholder gets pretty weak on the last 3 tracks, but the first 5 are the best the second era ever did (haven't heard the most recent however).  Mindrevolutions just doesn't do anything for me and I completely agree that the vocals are annoying.  It's strange, as it's the same vocalists as on Keyholder,  but they only annoy me on Mindrevolutions (they don't bother me at all on Notes either).

 

The Quiet One wrote: Hey Roger! You will definitely love The Flower King since you like so much TFK's early era. It's my favorite from the 90's, and it's up there with Space Revolver and Adam & Eve! BTW, glad you're enjoying A&E, it's such a great record!