RETROPOLIS

Despite having a similar sound and structure to their previous album, The Flower Kings took many steps in the right direction with their followup release, Retropolis. The most immediate improvement that comes to mind for me is the much more cohesive nature of the album, now with the instrumental songs matching the highlights in terms of quality, evoking the same level of amazing musical imagery as the epics from Back In The World Of Adventures. I also love the slightly more mysterious tone the album has, sounding more sci fi oriented compared to the lush fantasy sound of their debut.

After the strange and ultimately pointless Rhythm of Life, the album kicks off with the title track, which is an entirely insturmental 11 minute track that never wastes a single moment. This actually reminds me of a combination between Yes' Close To The Edge, and some of King Crimson's instrumental jams such as the Devil's Triangle, but it all comes together so perfectly with how it manages to paint such a vivid picture, made so amazing by to exquisite use of synths and mellotron. Funnily enough, in contrast to the previous album the next song I find truly memorable and amazing is The Melting Pot, another instrumental. This is not to say that the previous 2 songs aren't good, they're actually excellent, filled with emotion and power, with sweeping melodies and tasteful solos, with amazing interplay between the bass and guitar, it's just that I don't seem to remember much of these ones no matter how many times I listen to them, although I wouldn't call them filler. The Melting Pot on the other hand immediately hooked me with its more off kilter nature and its prominent use of the saxophone, all around having a somewhat more avant garde sound to it and making effective use of more ambient passages.

The album continues in amazing fashion with SIlent Sorrow, which I consider the quivalent to My Cosmic Lover, both having a different, more pop oriented sound, being more catchy than complex or grandiose, only difference being that Silent Sorrow is good. Not just good actually, downright amazing, being one of my favourites off this album in fact, as it has the normal kind of uplifting beauty of The Flower Kings, backed up by such lovely melodies and incredible keyboard usage, not to mention the stunning guitar solo. The Judas Kiss continues the absolutely stunning pace of the album, just like with Go West Judas, being the darkest cut off the album, and honestly sounding pretty similar, although not enough so to be considered overly derivative. The sounds of the church organ and the much more grandiose sound to everything actually reminds me of something I'd hear from a Castlevania game, which is always a massive positive in my book. Of the final 3 songs, while none are bad, it's mostly the closer that truly stands out to me, not because of doing anything particularly out of the ordinary for this album, but just because all of its best elements culminate here to produce a composition that closes everything off perfectly, with the sort of finality that one would expect to hear in a closing track.

Definitely a massive improvement over their first album for me, taking the amazing, expansive instrumental passages that impressed me so much, and then making the entire album a much more cohesive experience less rife with filler, each song having purpose, with the instrumental ones being significantly more fleshed out and interesting. The more mysterious tone is not offset by the amazing optimism possessed b the band either, the way they're able to sound so happy without being simultaneously painfully cheesy is without a doubt one of their biggest strong points along with their vivid imagery. I was initially somewhat hesitant to listen to much more b The Flower Kings after my initial disappointment, but this album has definitely changed m mind on that, and I'm eager to see how they handle one of their insanely large double albums, as I'm now feeling more optimistic that it won't be as bloated as I had expected.

Best songs: Retropolis, Silent Sorrow, The Judas Kiss, The Road Back Home

Weakest songs: Flora Majora

Verdict: This is what retro prog should be like in general, not simply taking large influence from past artists, but doing something with these influences. Retropolis displays the songwriting techniques and sound of many classic prog bands, but then has a slightl more modern twist to it, along with having a better understanding of what makes a good instrumental break than some of the classics did at times (Looking at you Emerson, Lake and Palmer).