Flower Kings Appreciation Thread

Well I have to Agree - I have every studio CD by TFK, IQ and DT - but haven;t heard any frost, not impressed with Marilion after Fish left - Misplaced Childhood side 1 is as good as anything they have produced - Pendragon - I love some but not all of their output. Love Transatlantic and have loved it even more since I have grown into loving TFK.

Barney,

I am lukewarm about Dream Theater covering a Genesis CD.  On one hand, I'm generally interested in just about anything Genesis related.  On the other hand, I have heard their version of "Dark Side of the Moon" and frankly, I wasn't very impressed with it.  It sounded good and all of that, but it sounded more like a very good cover band playing Pink Floyd rather than Dream Theater playing Floyd.  I only heard it once and it was a while ago, but if memory serves me, they hired a female vocalist to cover those parts and also imported a sax player for Money and the other sax bits.  I'd really rather have heard Petrucci or Rudess tearing up one of their solos over that part rather than a clone of the original recording.

Now, with that being said, I haven't heard their version of Echos.

My point is that I'd love to hear Dream Theater do Selling England or The Lamb, in their own style, rather than trying to sound as much as possible like the original recording.


Infandous,

I actually haven't, but in all honesty, I've kind of written him off in my book.  I don't understand why one would consistently buy albums of a band he hates just to consistently give them one star ratings.  Seems like a waste of money to me. 

In addition, I see no justification within the body of his review to give it a second star.  To me it seems like he gave it a two star rating just to avoid getting grief for rating their albums with one star.  Yes, there are other two star FK albums on there, if I cared enough I'd go look at those review and see if there's any substance.

it just unfortunate that he is the first review that you see when you pull up many of their web pages, my understanding is that it's done chronologically.  With The Sum of No Evil, at least there were a bunch of other reviews that predate his.  Newcomers aren't seeing it on top every time they go to check out a FK album.

IQ in les than 36 hours, progfest in less than 24.

Wow, now there's a library that I'd love to have nearby.  If I asked my library for something by the Flower Kings they'd laugh at me . . or just look strangely and scratch some inappropriate part of their body.

Roland113 wrote: ^ Scott, maybe regular poster was not quote the correct term, but regular monitors.  Specifically, when I saw both you and Nate posting to the Sylvan poll is when I started thinking along these lines.  And there are certainly exceptions to from those in here as well.  As infandous mentioned a moment ago, he's not a big fan of most of the other bands (besides The Flower Kings) and if I'm on my mark, Pablo will be an exception as well.  J-Man (as he said above) , Henk and Roj though I'm thinking are all going to foll into that same category.  Good point on the Transatlantic connection.  Even though I mentioned them, I wasn't thinking of them as the connecting factor.  Shoot, maybe I should include Marillion in the same group, I didn't cause I don't consider them one of my favorites, but that's part of the process, just cause they're my exception doesn't mean that they don't fall into the same category. Either way, in my own mind, I'm giving a bit more weight to recommendations from people that enjoy the previous listed bands just because of your musical compatibilities. I'm still curious to what others may consider linking factors, though feel free to include Marillion on the list as well.

Somehow, yes, you're right, but that's just because I haven't heard Frost* and Sylvan.
You know my opinion on TFK, also from IQ, and surely about DT too (90's > 00's).

So, hmm, no, I really don't see where's the connection you're seeing, I mean they obviously share stuff, but I think that can be done with a whole bunch of other bands... I think...

But like you mentioned, I will be an exception, and surely can't add any good substance to the discussion, so I'll pass..

M27Barney wrote: Well I have to Agree - I have every studio CD by TFK, IQ and DT - but haven;t heard any frost, not impressed with Marilion after Fish left - Misplaced Childhood side 1 is as good as anything they have produced - Pendragon - I love some but not all of their output. Love Transatlantic and have loved it even more since I have grown into loving TFK. The latest DT tripple CD is absolutely amazing - I am hoping that DT do the Lamb or selling england as one of their official bootlegs or maybe a quadruple cd of Gensis (1970-74) covers - that would be amazing. Then do a Yes covers CD. - The DT cover of Echoes is miles better than the original IMHO. Has anybody on here heard that ? Back onto TFK - Flower Power is in my CD player at the moment - it's going to get FIVE stars thats for certain.....

The Quiet One wrote: I've got a need to talk about The Tangent.... Please list their albums in order of preference: #1 The World That We Drive Through (5 stars) #2 Not as Good as the Book (4.5 stars) #3 A Place in the Queue (4.5 stars) haven't heard their debut, yet

Roland113 wrote: Wow, now there's a library that I'd love to have nearby.  If I asked my library for something by the Flower Kings they'd laugh at me . . or just look strangely and scratch some inappropriate part of their body.

I found some Decemberists, DT, and Zappa Cds at mine. I'm lucky

UMUR wrote: Roland113 wrote: Wow, now there's a library that I'd love to have nearby.  If I asked my library for something by the Flower Kings they'd laugh at me . . or just look strangely and scratch some inappropriate part of their body.      I´m lucky too. The Danish Library system have got lots of progressive rock including almost every TFK album. I have those myself though. But I use the library system a lot to discover new bands. I can loan the albums for at least a month and sometimes up to a half year if there aren´t anyone else asking for them. As I always say: There´s a reason why we pay the highest income tax in the world. Oh did I forget to mention that the loans are for free.

progrules wrote: UMUR wrote: Roland113 wrote: Wow, now there's a library that I'd love to have nearby.  If I asked my library for something by the Flower Kings they'd laugh at me . . or just look strangely and scratch some inappropriate part of their body.      I´m lucky too. The Danish Library system have got lots of progressive rock including almost every TFK album. I have those myself though. But I use the library system a lot to discover new bands. I can loan the albums for at least a month and sometimes up to a half year if there aren´t anyone else asking for them. As I always say: There´s a reason why we pay the highest income tax in the world. Oh did I forget to mention that the loans are for free.   Now I know how you got to over a 1000 reviews !   Welcome to the thread Umur, you should come here more often. And another thing you could do is do more TFK reviews. Preferrably with 4 or 5 stars as ratings, that would make us Floki Freaks very happy

infandous wrote: Well Roland, I'm going to blow your assumption I'm afraid.  I generally dislike Neo......a lot.  IQ is probably the only exception, but even with them I find that the more recent albums songs all run together and leave no impression on me after they are done (though they are pleasant enough while I'm listening).  I don't care for Frost* at all, and even less for Sylan (though I've only heard one album by each, the first Frost* and the Posthumous Silence from Sylvan).  I like some of the Fish ear Marillion stuff as well, and Pallas is tolerable to me (but much like IQ, the songs all run together and I can't recall anything about them when they are over).  I have never heard anything I liked from Pendragon, Arena, Jadis, etc. (can't think of all the neo I've heard at the moment.........but it's a lot, because it always seemed like something I should like in theory, but in reality I just don't).

This is pretty much how I feel as well to be honest.

I was there at the start in the early 80s with bands such as Marillion, IQ (The Lens), Twelfth Night, Pendragon, Pallas, etc, etc. I saw most of these bands and started collecting the albums and was on their mailing lists.

I mean, it's great that these bands kept the prog flag flying during that period but by the mid-80s I realised that none of the music was as good as the early 70s stuff and I was just trying to experience something that I had been too young for in the early 70s.

Then when the (so-called) 3rd wave came along with bands such as Anglagard, Spock's Beard and The Flower Kings, etc, I realised what had been missing from the neo bands and that is -  superlative musicianship. That feeling that these bands were absolutely born to play this kind of music rather than having to over-stretch themselves which is the feeling I get from most of the "neo" bands.

The Flower Kings just sound like it's effortless for them and the music sounds so much more convincing for that. It's very hard to describe but I know what I'm hearing.

I've tried some of the later neo bands such as Sylvan and some of the Polish bands but I just get the same feeling from them as I get from the 80s bands.  

Just my personal opinion of course.





Edited by Nov - August 09 2009 at 08:42