PARADOX HOTEL

Flower Kings' latest epic 2CD set is a well packaged set, the digipak edition at least appearing in a sort of triple gatefold affair, very pleasing to the eye, I like the caricatures of the band on the cover, I know others disagree, still to the music.

Starting off with Check In which is mainly just conversation between ground control and one of the apollo missions, a nice effective opening, finishing off with what sounds like a table tennis match, which I'm pretty sure they have used elsewhere, but can't think on what. This leads in to the epic Monsters and Men, which is a fine epic never seems to wander off track or dabble on a theme for too long, heavily influenced by Close to the Edge period Yes, it keeps the interest nicely which can be a problem with longer songs. Hit Me With a Hit is a fine catchy "Prog Pop" song really which seems to follow the KLF how to have a number one hit, about the vacuous ness of music in the "Charts", but I think its catchy enough to populate said Hit Parade itself.

Half way through CD1 we go into Pink Floyd mode with Pioneers of Aviation a sort of psychedelic instrumental which you can image early floyd making crossed with a touch of SEbtP era Genesis, and Mommy Leave The Light on" which could have graced The Wall.

CD2 starts with a real barnstormer in the guise of Minor Giant Steps, reminds me vaguely of mid period VdGG for some reason, but doesn't really sound like them. Touch My Heaven is a personal favourite of mine, starts of dreamy and jazzy and ends with spine tingling guitars a terrific track even though its the least "Flower Kings" type track on here. Man of the World and Life Will kill you could be two tracks that you could hear blaring out of car stereos sounding like typical FM Radio Rock, which made me blanche a bit at first, but I really started to appreciate the tracks after a few listens, as more and more depth is revealed, than upon initial hearings. The Way the Waters are Moving is a moving (!) hymn dedicated to the casualties and survivors of the christmas 2004 tsunami and its stays just the right side of mawkish and slides nicely into What If God Was Alone, which is another highlight of the album. The title track continues the tradition of Flower Kings having the worst song on the album as the title track (a la Adam and Eve), it just seems to be a boring chuggy pub rock type track, although there are some nice instrumental passages later into the track. Blue Planet finishes off nicely and comes around to the initial theme of the apollo missions, getting description of the Earth from the Astronauts perspective.

All in all a fine album, not perfect, but then very little is.