PARADOX HOTEL

After Unfold the Future and Adam and Eve left me wondering if the Flower Kings had run out of steam, it took me a long time to get around to giving Paradox Hotel a try. In retrospect, I am glad I did, because this feels like a reinvigoration of the band's approach. The band dial back from complexity for complexity's sake and are a bit less big on simply repeating ideas from 1970s prog groups, with the result that their sound ends up a touch more streamlined - they don't go full neo- prog, but if they went that much further in this direction that's where they'd end up.

The thing which stops me getting fully behind it is the same issue which affected my enjoyment of the past couple of albums - the gang just aren't that good as vocalists, and between this and some fairly risible lyrics (guys, we didn't really need a Flower Kings meditation on the rise of the Third Reich) the album ends up suffering more or less whenever someone is singing. The musical backing and instrumental sections are strong enough to salvage things in general, but it's faintly alarming that this deep into things the band still haven't figured out a little thing like "lead vocals".