SPACE REVOLVER

A shame that someone felt it necessary to put a one star review at the top of nearly every Flower Kings album. I hope this will not discourage others from scrolling down to see the overwhelmingly positive reviews by everyone else.

Space Revolver is an excellent Flower Kings album. Not my favorite, and not really a masterpiece, but a truly great album. For me, it marks a transition from the original line up to the one that is now in place. The big change here was the addition of Jonas Reingold on bass. And what a fantastic change it was!

I Am The Sun is a powerful epic in the best tradition of FK epics. It has dynamics, variety, surprises and great vocals. Probably the best song on the album (both parts). The ending of Part 2 is a symphonic bliss that Yes must be jealous of. After a pleasant Dream on Dreamer, with outstanding sax playing, we have Tomas Bodin's Rumble Fish Twist. A truly great instrumental that gives Jonas a bass solo spot, and shows the rest of the band in top form. A beautiful atmospheric section takes us to the end and into Monster Within. I'm not sure why, but I really love this song. It is not a typical Flower Kings song, and has a number of somewhat disjointed changes and sections. Yet for me, it flows well, and appeals to my musically complex tendencies. It doesn't seem to be a favorite of many FK fans though. After this, things go down hill a bit for my tastes. Chicken Farmer Song is okay, with a very nice odd time guitar solo section, but it is just a bit too corn ball for me on the whole. Underdog is better, with a nice slide guitar carrying the melody and some almost pop vocals and arrangements.........until the ending where things get very heavy and weird. A decent song that I have grown to like. The next track is a simple acoustic number that was meant to break up the prog onslaught a bit, but I find it just plain lame. The lyrics are horrible, and the song just seems too cheesy to be taken seriously. Slave To Money and Kings Prayer are both excellent songs with each climaxing in fantastic Stolt guitar solos.

All in all, a fantastic album. I would say about 4.5 stars, but since I can't call it a masterpiece, I'll round down to 4.