Flower Kings Appreciation Thread

progrules wrote: Roland113 wrote: ^ We're kind of digressing here, but I agree on the John Mitchel front, he's a great guitar player with a knack for pumping out great solos.  Henk, I assume that you're familiar with John's work in Arena?  If not, I highly recommend 'Contagion'.  John really shines and Clive Nolan does a great job as well.  Contagion has become one of my all time favorite albums.   My first "acquaintance" with John was actually Arena, that's where he became famous. I don't think he ever did anything as great as on Black Light Machine with Arena though. The performance that comes closest is The Visitor, the title track at the end where he closes the song with another terrific solo. On Contagian he was very good but not outstanding. Do you have a track as an example from that album ?

After thinking about it, I somewhat agree, the Black Light solo is amazing and he really stands out on Milliontown as a whole.

There are bits of brilliance on Contagion, "This Way Madness Lies", "On the Box" and "Cutting the Cards" come to mind...oops, got to go, bed time for daughter...;kdashbfv

Roj M30 wrote: The Quiet One wrote: Hey guys, sorry if I'm changing the topic, but what do you think of The Rainmaker? (might have discussed it before...)   Hi Pablo, how's things?   If The Rainmaker was by anybody else it would probably be a contender for their best album.  As for TFK, I'd have to rate it as one of the weaker albums if only because there's a few duffers.  Through These Walls and Elaine are really average.    However, there's some great stuff on Rainmaker too.  I absolutely love Sword Of God, the chorus is one of the best I've ever heard.  Last Minute.. is fantastic, Serious Dreamers is excellent too with some amazing Bodin soloing and I also really rate Road To Sanctuary.  And what about Red Alert?  Surely the best 1:13 of music you could ever hope to hear.  Whilst I know it's a bit of a Road To Sanctuary reprise it surely should have been at least 5 minutes longer   I'd rate Rainmaker about 4.25 stars, which isn't bad for a "weaker" album.  What do you think Pablo and everybody else for that matter?

Hey Roger, I'm fine thanks for asking, though a bit worried since the *Argentine* gorvenment has declared "sanitarium emergency"(not sure if that's the translation), just like in Mexico due to the 'Influenza A' ("pig flu/fever) How are things doing in England?

On topic with The Rainmaker, for me I can sum it up in a sentence: If Space Revolver had been released as a double album, The Rainmaker would be the second disc. Of course, that is if you consider generally that the second discs of each TFK's albums are the weakest or less consistent, of course exception would be Paradox Hotel which we all seem to agree.
But to talk about it a bit more, it's indeed weak for TFK standards but there's really no bad stuff, just not really worthy material. Some stuff don't flow that good either, The Last Minute on Earth has lots of great ideas but they don't flow that well. By the way, I find the intro riff to that very Space Revolver-ish.
Sword of God is a very good rocker, and I agree about the chorus, very, very catchy.. Thru the Walls is very Genesis-ish, not very interesting. Ah...I'll make a review sooner or later.  I'm betweeen a 3 or a 4, though actually it would be a solid 3.5

Since my last post, Stardust We Are has been pretty much permanently on the MP3 player. I've just got Adam & Eve, later than I planned.

Full report to follow!

Roland113 wrote: ^ We're kind of digressing here, but I agree on the John Mitchel front, he's a great guitar player with a knack for pumping out great solos.  Henk, I assume that you're familiar with John's work in Arena?  If not, I highly recommend 'Contagion'.  John really shines and Clive Nolan does a great job as well.  Contagion has become one of my all time favorite albums.

^ Very much agreed .

The Quiet One wrote: Hey guys, sorry if I'm changing the topic, but what do you think of The Rainmaker? (might have discussed it before...)

Hey guys, sorry if I'm changing the topic, but what do you think of The Rainmaker? (might have discussed it before...)

Roj M30 wrote: Roland113 wrote:   Regarding Frost*, it would have been a great recommendation.  Agreed on Black Light Machine, I keep meaning to download the opening keyboard sound from the Frost* Forum to set it as the ring tone on my phone.  I really like the second one as well.  It's very different from Milliontown, but still fantastic.  The time changes are so much smoother on the second one that you don't realize they've shifted half the time.  Also, Andy Edwards really kicks it on the album.    My mobile phone is also my mp3 player so I can have any song as my ringtone .  Black Light Machine has already been my ringtone previously, as has IQ's The Wake and There Is More To This World.  Tom, I even thought of using Just This Once, just for you .  My ringtone is currently Constant Motion by DT!!!  Cool eh?   Your right about Andy Edwards, he is a fantastic drummer.  He's back with Frost and was outstanding when I saw them live recently.  Also, just listen to the drumming on the Frequency album, absolutely superb and much better drumming than on their earlier albums IMHO.

Roland113 wrote:   I ran into what you're describing on Garden of Dreams, I got it, listened to it once and dropped it out of my rotation for a while.  No real reason except that it didn't connect with me at first.  After a few months, I pulled it back out and started spinning it regularly and developed an appreciation for the CD.  I'm currently in the same phase with a few other Flower King's CD's, most notably 'World of Adventures' and 'The Flower King'. Part of my 'one review a day' mantra is to force myself to listen to those albums that I've been meaning to spin more often.

progrules wrote: Roland113 wrote: Roj M30 wrote: Roland113 wrote: Hmm, interesting thought, though before I throw my ranking up there, what do you consider an epic?  What is the time limit?   That's a tough call of course, but I've drawn the line at 15 minutes, anything under that I've excluded as otherwise I'd have so many to list!!   And Tom, you better make sure that Paradox Hotel gets the full 5 stars . Oh don't you worry about that, Paradox Hotel is one of my favorites.   O no, that sounds like you're going to make the same "mistake" as me by giving it 5 stars (?). In one way deservedly but if I do a song by song rating it's not 5 stars by a long way for me. It should be 4. But Monsters & Men made me go overboard back then and I had to give 5.   On your blog I wanted to suggest Frost* (Milliontown) to you but I checked it out and saw you had already done it and even gave it 5 stars ! To me it was 4,5 actually and Black Light Machine is my ultimate fav. I would almost like to do a Frost* appreciation thread but two albums is not enough yet and I don't even like their second that much so I think I'll leave it.

Henk,

Nah, I don't think it's a mistake, my gut feeling was that it was a five star CD but I gave it one last critical listen over my last two commutes.  I don't think there's a weak song on the pair of CD's.  It's their most consistent double CD the whole way through, even more so than Stardust.  For Stardust, I about 3/4ths of the way through the CD and I start wanting to skip tracks.  Paradox however, every song is solid to me.

Regarding Frost*, it would have been a great recommendation.  Agreed on Black Light Machine, I keep meaning to download the opening keyboard sound from the Frost* Forum to set it as the ring tone on my phone.  I really like the second one as well.  It's very different from Milliontown, but still fantastic.  The time changes are so much smoother on the second one that you don't realize they've shifted half the time.  Also, Andy Edwards really kicks it on the album.