FLOWER POWER

I must say I was very surprised when I knew that after releasing a massive double studio album, the next Flower King´s CD would be... another double album of original material. In a time most rock bands are putting out an album each 2 or 3 years, it was really amazing thta a symphonic prog band would produce that amount of music in only an year and a half time.

I am convinced that Roine Stolt´s prime as a songwriter was around the time of the original, "classic", line up. So this includes Flower Power which is as bit as good as the previous Stardust We Are. Ok, they are different, but if the title track of Stardust... is one of their most celebrate epics ever, so is their own Close To The Edge suite: Garden Of Dreams. This song is worth the price of the record alone (actually a colletion of 18 tracks put together, but they blend so well, it´s really hard to imagine it any other way than as a song). It´s one of the very few hour long pieces that is a pleasure to hear from beginning to end.

But there are other fine tunes too on record two, although no one really moved me as much as Garden Of Dreams. Painter, Corruption and Calling Home being some of the most criminally forgotten gems. There is only one really song that I did not like in the whole album: Hudson River Sirens Call 1998 aside (sounds like a boring filler). The rest varies from very good to excellent. I even like the first Hans Froberg song to be recorded by TFH, Magic Pie. Popish? Yeah, and so what? It´s still a great tune. The bad news were that this is the last album recorded with the original bassist Michael Stolt. His leaving would affect the chemistry inside the band, but that would be felt in the future. On this album the band shines and it´s better to be remembered this way.

So, this is probably the last of the "great" quartet of classic stuff they recorded. It´s essential to anyone who loves symphonic progressive rock, although, like the previous Stardust... a little too long, which inevitably does include a bit of filler stuff, even though I´m beginning to think that even those ones are better than I initially thought. Just be patient to listen carefuly and you´ll hear a truly remarkable album with lots of great moments.