RETROPOLIS

I have spent the best part of the last six weeks listening to all the albums from The Flower Kings. This is the first of my reviews during the next seven days. I have allready done the first album. I guess I gave it four stars.

Retropolis is great to the ear and an instant hit. The melodies is fantastic. Well, most of them. The title track is brilliant. .......And that is my impression of the first to the fifth listening session. But from the sixth listening, something does not seems right. No, I have not been hit in my head by an 100 miles an hour golf ball. The cracks is in this album; not in my head.

My main gripes is that the melodies sounds a bit calculated and re-cycled. I am pretty sure I have heard some of this stuff before. Or maybe that is only in my head. But there is something here I feel is very familiar. It is mainly the the AOR bits here I feel is too familiar to me. But on the other hand; these parts are superb, although they makes my alarm bells ring. The music on Retropolis is the usual TFK fare, although more AOR and commercially available than the other TFK albums. Maybe it is the best newbie-TFK album. To a certain extent, I am just that myself. But this album is too commercial for my likings. Some of the instrumentals are also pretty pointless and just album fillers. And that's the end of my gripes with this album.

On the positive side, the album has some brilliant tracks. Most notably the title track and the quite poppy ballad Rhythm Of The Sea. The Judas Kiss track points towards the upcoming TFK albums and is a very good track. The closing track The Road Back Home is a very fine example of how good this band is. The same is There Is More To This World. Both these songs points to the future of this band. Besides of the tracks; the musicianship is superb as usual. I cannot fault them on this.

In my view, this is the most commercially available TFK album. It is also a superb album which I have severe problems classifying. I love it, although I also recognice it's shortcomings. But I still love it.... I am sorry that I have to be subjective here, but it is a good four stars in my books. And yes, I admit I am a softie.

4 stars

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