BACK IN THE WORLD OF ADVENTURES

The second TFK-album Back in the world of adventures and the first one under the band's name represents a logical development of the predecessor The Flower King. Their music became more filigree and more complex without losing any accessibilty. Nevertheless it's a kind of music that is growing on you with every repeated listening and one gets never tired of it. Although their roots in 70's are still quite obvious it does not sound dated or extremely derivative since they manage to bring in their own typical flavour, the typical TFK-style we (the fans) all love so much. Of course this album is not their masterpiece, their best things were still to come at this point. Nevertheless it's a very solid record, admittedly with some weaker moments being more on the poppy side of Prog like My Cosmic Lovers, but even such songs are presented by them at a high level of quality and they never sound really bad in fact. Knowing that most of their albums can be judged mainly as a whole piece of art , I'll still try to review this album track by track and as objective as possible (although it will be difficult for me).

The title song is starting very much Yes-alike with several voices in overdubs and developing into a fascinating Progrock song with several mood shifts. Really great opener!!! The following instrumental track Atomic Prince is a classical inspired piece with guitar and mellotron and leads over without break to Kaleidoscope with pure acoustic guitar sounding a bit like some of Steve Howe's solo works. Go West Judas is a very rocking song with driving rhythm section and heavy guitar play. An excellent one with great guitar as usually by Roine Stolt. Train to nowhere is a nice ballade, maybe a bit too simple and airplay friendly whereas with Oblivion road they are showing us their more jazzy side once again. Like in two more songs ("My Cosmic Lover" and "Big Puzzle")where guest musician Ulf Wallander is presenting his awesome soprano sax interludes. Theme for a hero being very much dominated by guitar in the beginning develops to a great song during its course with guitar and keyboards as main instrument in alternation. Drumwork by Jaime Salazar is excellent as well and Michael Stolt's bass is a bit reminiscent of Chris Squire. Temple Of The Snakes is a very short instrumental with atmospheric keyboards, actually more an introduction to the mentioned a bit pop-ish "My Cosmic Lover" which has some trippy "Flower Power-feeling". Maybe not very relevant for Prog, but still enjoyable even for a Prog-listener. Even here all instruments sound fantastic, a very round and perfect song in fact and immediately rousing. The Wooden Wheel is another atmospheric instrumental, nice but not exciting as well, but I would not call it a filler, since its function is more like a transition to the second long epic track The Big Puzzle. This one is starting more restrained with slowly rising tempo, alternating solos of keyboards and guitar and a rather lush finish.

CONCLUSION:

Back in the world of adventures is a rather good and solid album, very enjoyable to listen, but still not as great as the following ones. I'd say it deserves 3 1/2 stars!