STARDUST WE ARE

I have now listened some times to The Flower King's third studio record "Stardust we are" from 1997. It is a huge collection of music for us who love sweaping and positive symphonic rock. The music i truely dynamic and the instrument performances are very professional and great. It came sixteen years ago in the golden years of the CD and it lasts for over two hours. This is thus not a record to just listen to at one time and think you have got it. The cover picture is very psychedelic with the member's faces like flowers in the space. I like it. The members then were Roine Stolt on guitars, keyboards and lead vocals, Tomas Bodin on keyboards, Michael Stolt on bass, Jaime Salazar on drums, Hasse Bruniusson on percussion and Hans Fröberg on lead and backing vocals. Bruniusson was earlier a member of the prog veterans Samla Mammas Manna in the seventies.

I wasn't at all aware of prog rock back in 1997 when I was eight and I have just liked The Flower Kings for perhaps a year. In the beginning I though this band was too much. They did too long songs and records and sounded too catchy. Still I think they often do too much song. One CD with the best of these songs would have been even better than this. Though is this still very good.

The first song "In the eyes of the world" is amongst the album's best. It's long and varied with both weird and low profiled parts and heavy rock parts. The song is typical for The Flower Kings and absolutely worth listening to. "Just this once" is often quite calm and have a sense of a nice world. The comes "Church of you heart" which is one of the record's most catchy things. I like it and it has very different parts too. The instrumental "The Man who walked with kings" is amazing. I do enjoy the atmosphere and the wonderful melodies that really take you with them. Then comes "Circus Brimstone" which also is instrumental and a wonderous track with a great loveliness in it. You can hear bits of the circus such in many of these tracks. "Don of the universe" takes us in an Indian way to the later main theme of the record and it has a fine sound. "Kingdom of Lies" is also a lovely and very melodic track, just as "Ghost of the Red Cloud" which is dramatic and very fine. Best though on the album is the title track "Stardust we are". That one lasts for 25 minutes and has very great parts all the time. It is a true fantastic track regardless of what you think about it. The performance is adorned with many ingredients of glory. The keys and the guitars and a joyful refrain and a dramatic structure. "Stardust we are" is a huge reason to why I give this record such a high rating. The title track along with all earlier mentioned tracks and the beautiful short ones: (track)A2, 5, 8, B1, 5, 8 and 10 make this a fixed and pleasent part of a prog collection.

To be honest isn't everything just as interesting. On the second record are there three of more long songs that I don't have strong feelings for. I wouldn't say this record is a masterpiece; it's too long and do has some inferior fillers. But over all is it yet remarkable that the band could hold such a high standard. If some of you a new to The Flower Kings I think I would recommend "Circus Brimstone" from this record. It shows the bands variety and professionalism. I would say this record is worth four stars!