Flower Kings Appreciation Thread

Roland113 wrote: So here's something that I tried over the weekend.  Some of the Flower Kings albums seem to go on for entirely too long to really be digested properly.  To me, this is especially true for Flower Power and Unfold the Future. So, I'm getting ready to review Flower Power this week and needed to do something for the songs that tend to blur together for me.  What I did was took Flower Power's most memorable tracks (to me at least) and removed them from the playlist.  This left me with an album of: Deaf, Numb and Blind Corruption Power of Kindness Psychedelic Postcard Hudson River Sirens Call Painter Calling Home Afterlife So far this is turning out to be a pretty good album, it's kind of like finding a new FK album.  I think I'll try a similar experiment with Unfold the Future next and see what that does for me. With that being said, which albums are too long in your mind?  If you're willing, try my experiment and let us know what kind of results you get.

Disk 2 of Flower Power really does get unfairly criticized in my opinion. I think people just go on what they've heard about the album to be honest.

Of course, disk 2 is over-shadowed by disk 1 but then so are sides 3 and 4 of The Lamb over-shadowed by sides 1 and 2 (for example).

In my opinion there is some stupendous stuff on FP2 and it's just a matter of taking the time to get to know the tracks properly.

I think it's a good idea filtering out all the best songs (as you've done) to become familiar with the less played stuff. I did a similar thing with TFK in iTunes and I'm still getting used to tracks that I used to skip even though I've had all the albums for over 5 years now (apart from the more recent ones of course).

There really are some gems in there that I used to skip.






Edited by Nov - July 20 2009 at 16:31

Odd, I don't find any of their albums to be too long.  But that's just me  

Okay, I admit there are two songs on Stardust I could do without, and Flower Power could just be the first CD, with maybe Deaf, Numb, and Blind to make it 78 minutes.  I could probably also combine the best of Rainmaker with the best of Adam&Eve into one album, though that would be pushing it.  Other than that, they are all perfect!

And Henk, I agree about Hydrophonia.  I enjoy it when I hear it, but it's not something I pull out often.

Thanks Nate, see, strangely enough, Paradox Hotel is the only double album by them that I don't phase out half way through.  On Paradox, "Life Will Kill You" was largely overlooked by me for a long time, once it clicked with me, it became one of my favorites.

So here's something that I tried over the weekend.  Some of the Flower Kings albums seem to go on for entirely too long to really be digested properly.  To me, this is especially true for Flower Power and Unfold the Future.

So, I'm getting ready to review Flower Power this week and needed to do something for the songs that tend to blur together for me.  What I did was took Flower Power's most memorable tracks (to me at least) and removed them from the playlist. 

This left me with an album of:

Deaf, Numb and Blind
Corruption
Power of Kindness
Psychedelic Postcard
Hudson River Sirens Call
Painter
Calling Home
Afterlife

So far this is turning out to be a pretty good album, it's kind of like finding a new FK album.  I think I'll try a similar experiment with Unfold the Future next and see what that does for me.

With that being said, which albums are too long in your mind?  If you're willing, try my experiment and let us know what kind of results you get.

infandous wrote: Roland113 wrote: Sorry I haven't posted here lately, been rather busy on a few fronts. Just in case Roine and the gang is reading this, I'd totally pre-order any Flower Kings album if it would help the band out. It would be a shame for such a wonderful band to simply fade away due to a financial crisis.  I will say this, the recession will end at some point and even if SPV / Inside Out folds, I'm certain that another label will resurface eventually to sign some of the Inside Out bands.  Things are tough world wide, of that there is no doubt.  If the band is on hiatus only because of financial issues, then they will be back once the economy can support them. Well, I don't think the hiatus was for financial reasons, only that that might prolong it.  As much as I dislike the hiatus, I think it will be good for Roine and the band, allowing them to come back with new focus, new ideas, new energy, etc. Ideally, anyway. I always used to worry that they were going to put out a bad album, go the way of the older prog bands and either disband, write more mainstream material, or just loose their magic.  I stopped worrying about that a few albums ago   I have faith that if/when they return, we will all be very pleased with the results.

Edited by progrules - July 20 2009 at 01:44

Sorry I haven't posted here lately, been rather busy on a few fronts.

Just in case Roine and the gang is reading this, I'd totally pre-order any Flower Kings album if it would help the band out.

It would be a shame for such a wonderful band to simply fade away due to a financial crisis.  I will say this, the recession will end at some point and even if SPV / Inside Out folds, I'm certain that another label will resurface eventually to sign some of the Inside Out bands. 

Things are tough world wide, of that there is no doubt.  If the band is on hiatus only because of financial issues, then they will be back once the economy can support them.

Roj M30 wrote: I really hope it's not going to be the end of TFK, that would be unfair.  If Roine can afford to make albums with Agents Of Mercy, surely TFK won't be a problem? I'm sure that if they funded a new TFK album by pre-orders they'd be inundated with orders.  I'm sure everyone on this thread would be ordering straightaway. Anyway, on an optimistic note I'm sure the new Transatlantic album (and tour, live album  and concert DVD ) will be a big money-spinner for Roine, so hopefully a TFK album might follow.

I really hope it's not going to be the end of TFK, that would be unfair.  If Roine can afford to make albums with Agents Of Mercy, surely TFK won't be a problem?

Sadly, I've heard no word.  There are rumors that is it more than just a sabbatical.....that Roine simply can't afford to keep the band together (he pays all the other members for the work).  Also, a new FK album would most likely have to be self - released, as it seems Inside Out is not able to support most (or maybe any) of it's bands with it's parent company in bankruptcy. 

However, Roine has said nothing along those lines, and hopefully the new TA album will fill his coffers again enough to put out a new FK album.

In any case, it isn't going to be soon I'm afraid.  Still, I am looking forward to the new Tomas Bodin album which he has to release on his own, solely from pre-orders..........so if he doesn't get enough of those, the album will not be released.  Difficult times for us fans for sure.

Saw your review of Agents Henk and had to add my own.  Even though we gave the same rating, mine was a bit more positive than yours.  But on the whole, I agree with your sentiments.  Not one of Roine's stronger projects.  Though I still do enjoy about half the songs quite a bit.  I think it's kind of a stripped down prog, which isn't surprising since it was supposed to be an acoustic folk type project originally.

By they way, I'm looking forward to Roine and Jonas' fusion project which is nearing completion as I understand it.




Edited by infandous - July 14 2009 at 13:55