HYDROPHONIA

I'm a big fan of the Flower Kings, and particularly of their many instrumental numbers (and instrumental parts of songs and epics). So you'd think this would be a no brainer. However, this is not quite the masterful guitar album one might expect from someone of Stolt's skills. There is great guitar playing here, and all the songs are enjoyable and listenable. But, but, but. For some reason it just doesn't do a lot for me. It is nice background music, and some songs (Cosmic Lodge, Wreck of the HMS Nemesis, and one or two others) are even good enough to pay close attention to. But on the whole, it is not a particularly great album, and certainly not a masterpiece.

You'd think that since the Flower Kings are dominated by Stolt to a large degree, that a solo album would be of the same quality as the band albums. But you'd be (mostly) wrong. Still, while I'm tempted to give this two stars, as I don't really think it would have appeal to anyone who is not a fan of the Flower Kings and Stolts other side projects, I feel it is a bit better than that. And I just can't bring myself to give anything featuring Stolt less than 3 stars (except the last album he did with Kaipa in 2005........but that's another story). So 3 stars it is, but with the caveat that you should probably like the Flower Kings before considering buying this. And even then, get all those albums first (and even his more recent, non-prog solo album has a bit more spark and interest to it than this one).