BACK IN THE WORLD OF ADVENTURES

The Flower Kings are a band that took me absolutely ages to get around to listening to, despite multiple recommendations from different sources. There were 2 reasons for this, one is that I'm just nowhere near as big on symphonic prog as a lot of others seem to be, and two, the bigger one, how am I supposed to take a band at all seriously when they call themselves the Flower Kings? After listening to this album a few times, I still felt apprehensive about listening further, as I honestly don't enjoy this album as much as a lot of other people seem to, a lot of it coming down to the reason of filler, in this case an excessive amount of it. The sound of the band is retro prog borrowing greatly from Genesis, Yes, and King Crimson, the general upbeat sound and extended instrumental passages of Yes, the often bright, upbeat and beautiful nature of Genesis, and then occasionally the heavier, darker riffs of King Crimson, while also throwing in some more modern touches, particularly in the more pop oriented songs.

The album kicks off with what is by far my favourite song here, which isn't a good thing given the fact that this album is on the longer side, meaning that past this point, there won't be anytrhing quite as impressive to be found. That said, World Of Adventures is a stunning track, starting off with the heavy use of flute and synth, invoking the atmosphere of a forest clearing, before unleashing a surprisingly punchy riff that reminds me of the heavier section of PFM's Appena Un Po, and definitely surprised me first listen, as I expected something upbeat to a cheesy and painful extent, this moment of heaviness immediately quelling some of my fears about how this would turn out. Once this part dies down, it reveals a series of absolutely beautiful melodies that I could see on a Yes album, but with vocals that I personally prefer, not being a big fan of Jon Anderson's singing. The extremely long middle part of the song is what should be done with an extended instrumental section, never devolving into pointless soloing, instead taking the listener on a journey, capturing a wonderful sense of uplifting energy that never dulls for a second, making apt use of its full runtime. Atomic Prince / Kaleidoscope embraces the sound of Emerson Lake and Palmer with the sound of the keyboards and the fact that this is essentially one large instrumental break, the first of many on this album, and by far the best, swapping between a core motif and impressive solos, each cycle increasing the intensity, never going overboard, simply sounding excellent throughout the majority of it. The one issue I have is that the soft, middle section is incredibly tedious and makes the song feel too long. Go West Judas is the one of the two other songs on this album which I would consider to be really great, being a heavier song that has an absolutely wonderful riff that continues over to the bassline. The hints of mellotron and guitar chords played during the chorus provides extra power and intensity to the song.

It's unfortunate that after this point, the album weakens significantly, with the slower songs being consistently bad, and the instrumental songs being generally uneventful and mediocre. Train To Nowhere begins this trend by trying to be an emotional ballad, but failing to have any aspect of it leave any impact other than boredom, sounding cheesy rather than heartfelt. Oblivion Road and to a lesser extent, Theme For A Hero are entirely instrumental songs that do very little, Oblivion Road having its sole highlight being some half decent saxophone, but without any form of crescendo, everything being extremely subdued, it just ends up being extremely dull. Theme For A Hero rehashes elements that were done better in World Of Adventures, having a similar uplifting atmosphere, but without the strong melody and overall beauty that it had, leaving it feeling like a far inferior version of it. I'd be more willing to forgive a couple of bad tracks, if not for the fact that the worst was still to come, with My Cosmic Lover being absolutely abysmal. I find this song to be so awful that it becomes genuinely embarrassing to listen to, with the main instrumental melody sounding like a bad song from one of the GBA Spyro games, not something you should ever aspire to sound like. The song then somehow becomes worse once the vocals kick in, with enough cheese to feed a small village for a month. The album does manage to save itself slightly by the end with its second, albeit inferior epic, Big Puzzle, taking on a much slower, prettier approach, complete with smooth saxophone and far less energy in vocal delivery. The main reason this song manages to be great falls back to the same reason that the opener was, absolutely sublime instrumental passages, far overshadowing anything with the vocals involved, being dynamic, memorable, and just downright a joy to listen to, and manages to close off the album in a stunning way.

I feel like if this album cut everything from Go West Judas until Big Puzzle, the end result would be a far superior one, as this would eliminate the massive amount of filler that plagues the album, songs that range from mediocre to absolutely atrocious. This is by far the largest complaint I have about the album, as when it's good, it's really good, being able to make instrumental sections incredibly engaging without having to resort to virtuosity, which is something that I tend to find a lot of weaker modern prog bands do, ultimately being their downfall. In this case though, I can definitely see why this band has its fans, and do see a lot of potential in this debut, showing a real knack for making epics without a moment that feels wasted, and having a tone that's happy and uplifting without becoming too saccharine, it's just a shame that there's over half an hour worth of boredom that brings this down, although it's less of an issue than it otherwise would be, given how great the high points are.

Best songs: World of Adventures, Go West Judas, Big Puzzle

Weakest songs: Train to Nowhere, My Cosmic Lover

Verdict: If you like retro prog, or are at least accepting of it, then you'll probably enjoy at least the highlights of this album, as they take everything great about classic prog, and occasionally manages to improve upon it, as I've felt much more connection to the instrumental sections of the best songs here than I have with many others, including some of the greats of classic prog, shame that I can't stand half of this.