Why many people dislike The Flower Kings

I like a few of the songs by The Flower Kings. They're not that bad.


I've never actually heard any of their albums,  however.

Teh_Slippermenz wrote: I like a few of the songs by The Flower Kings. They're not that bad. I've never actually heard any of their albums,  however.

see my previous post....  cheapest near mint copy of a Flower Kings album you'll ever find   Send me postage... and it's yours...

People tend to dislike the Flower Kings because they are fairly Avant-Garde for a somewhat mainstream Progressive band.  They write music that is technical, and has lots of complex harmonies and rhythms (eg. most of the Retropolis album, Circus Brimstone, Unorthodox Dancinglesson, ect...).  However, they also write a lot of music that is easy to listen to (eg. End on a High note, Man of the World, and What if god is alone).  For a lot of prog bands, this works, but it doesn't for TFK, because their avant-garde stuff is so difficult to, for want of a better term, swallow.  they usually must be listened to many times before you start to apreciate them truly.  Some prog fans, believe it or not, are not willing to do this, and if they don't like something straight away (or at least after two listens,) they imediately dismiss it as not worth their while.  This sort of automatically ailienates them from most potentioal audiences (because the people who only like the easy-to-listen-to stuff will not like the avant-garde stuff, and people who like the avant-garde stuff more will think the easy tracks are bad tracks).  Then there's the fact that many so-called prog fans are very picky, and only like, say prog metal or something.  That is another problem that some people have with the Flower Kings, because it is very hard to classify the boundaries of Flower Kings, because all their stuff is so different.  They lack consistency, which to some fans, the ones who really appreciate and understand music, this makes them interesting. However, most people (sadly) are not like that.  That is the reason why, instead of bands like  The Flower Kings, Marrilion and Spock's Beard are wallowing in the low levels of the music charts, while musicians like Britney Spears, Kanye West and Just Timberlake are constantly at the top of the charts.

In conlusion, I believe the Flower Kings are not as popular as the other leading forces in prog rock today, because they can't be settled into a firm niche in the community of progressive music.  Personally, they are one of my favorite bands, but then again, I have a fairly extensive knowledge of the technical aspect of music.

Avant-garde stuff, The Flower Kings?  I have never heard any material of theirs that struck me as avant-garde. All I've heard has struck me as regressive and derivative (or as some prefer to say, heavily influenced).  A truly avant-garde band is innovative and progressive.   Nor do I think they have much in common with Avant-Prog from what I know (not that bands that are included in that category need be innovative, new, and truly progressive). Nothing wrong with being influenced, music is not born in a vacuum, but The Flower Kings come across as rather unusually regressive (retro-Prog) to me.  Maybe I've heard the wrong stuff, oh wait, I did once hear Retropolis and it didn't strike me as avant-garde, au contraire.  It was derivative and retro.  Nor did it strike me as really influenced by avant-garde music at the time.

I find the band incredible tedious to listen to.  I haven't found anything anywhere approaching sublime about this band.  Incredibly dull to my ears.  Bottom of the barrel for me, along with bands such as Spock's Neard and Marillion, which were also mentioned by prog-expert #1.  The musicians are pretty talented, but the music seems so uninspired and tedious.  Bland, boring, banal... And I really can't stand the AOR influence.  It's a bad band for me, but if others enjoy it, yay for them.  For me, popular Prog today mostly sucks (chamber rock/ so-called Avant Prog today, on the other hand, is a different story... As but one example, I'll take Yugen's 2006 album any day over Paradox Hotel).

HEY GUYS I HAVE AN OPINION ABOUT A BAND AS WELL AND I CAN TYPE IT REALLY BIG LIKE THIS SO I'M MORE IMPORTANT

I like the Flower Kings, but I must say that when I listen to something by them for the first time I end up saying "Well that bit sounds like something off SEBTP," and then about a minute later "That bit sounds like '80's King Crimson" and then about a minute and a half later, "and that sounds like something Yes might do."  I like them but they remind me of every other band I've ever liked, almost.