FLOWER POWER

The Flower Kings' fourth album is the terribly named, in my opinion, Flower Power. But, Flower Power, is not like the title. Flower Power is in fact an album of extraordinary melodies and musicianship. The first song on the album is the 59 minute epic "Garden Of Dreams", which is one of the longest prog songs of all time. This symphonic epic combines all of The Flower Kings' strengths as composers and musicians into one hour long spectacle. The song has 18 sections, so the piece never gets boring. The finale "The Final Deal" has to be TFK's greatest moment. The following two songs on the first disc ("Captain Capstan" and "IKEA By Night") are just extremely short instrumental fillers before leading up to the fantastic Zappa-influenced instrumental "Astral Dog". Stolt truly is a great, yet underrated, guitarist. The first disc is perfect, with no faults. The second disc is trademark Flower Kings with songs hovering around an average of 6 minutes. Not as good as the first disc, but it holds its own. Overall, a great album from the Swedish proggers and it is definitely their best. "Garden Of Dreams" is one of the best songs of all time.