Flower Kings Appreciation Thread

Roj M30 wrote: Like Mike, the Top 200 (or even 100) is beyond me I'm afraid.   However, to give an idea of the very top of my table, my top 50 would definitely (not in order)  include:-   TFK - I Am The Sun (complete) TFK - Monsters and Men TFK - Garden Of Dreams TFK - Stardust We Are TFK - Retropolis TFK - Just This Once Pink Floyd - Echoes Pink Floyd - Sheep Pink Floyd - Dogs Yes - Awaken Yes - Gates Of Delirium Yes - And You And I The Black Dog - Psil Cosyin IQ - The Seventh House IQ - Leap Of Faith IQ - Sacred Sound Frost* - Black Light Machine Frost* - Dear Dead Days ELP - Karn Evil 9 (complete) Porcupine Tree - Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape Porcupine Tree - The Moon Touches Your Shoulder Porcupine Tree - Always Never Dream Theater - Octavarium Dream Theater - The Glass Prison Tomas Bodin - I Am (complete - is this cheating? ) Glass Hammer - Further Up and Further In Genesis - Cinema Show Genesis - Firth OF Fifth Genesis - One For The Vine Boards Of Canada - Left Side Drive Boards Of Canada - The Beach At Redpoint Boards Of Canada - Happy Cycling Luminatus - Hope The Orb - Oxbow Lakes Opeth - Deliverance ELP - Tarkus (Welcome Back My Friends version)   I know some of 'em aren't on PA but I reckon they're prog so...........and my opinion matters!!!!!

Edited by progrules - January 08 2010 at 03:14

progrules wrote: Roj M30 wrote: Like Mike, the Top 200 (or even 100) is beyond me I'm afraid.   However, to give an idea of the very top of my table, my top 50 would definitely (not in order)  include:-   TFK - I Am The Sun (complete) TFK - Monsters and Men TFK - Garden Of Dreams TFK - Stardust We Are TFK - Retropolis TFK - Just This Once Pink Floyd - Echoes Pink Floyd - Sheep Pink Floyd - Dogs Yes - Awaken Yes - Gates Of Delirium Yes - And You And I The Black Dog - Psil Cosyin IQ - The Seventh House IQ - Leap Of Faith IQ - Sacred Sound Frost* - Black Light Machine Frost* - Dear Dead Days ELP - Karn Evil 9 (complete) Porcupine Tree - Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape Porcupine Tree - The Moon Touches Your Shoulder Porcupine Tree - Always Never Dream Theater - Octavarium Dream Theater - The Glass Prison Tomas Bodin - I Am (complete - is this cheating? ) Glass Hammer - Further Up and Further In Genesis - Cinema Show Genesis - Firth OF Fifth Genesis - One For The Vine Boards Of Canada - Left Side Drive Boards Of Canada - The Beach At Redpoint Boards Of Canada - Happy Cycling Luminatus - Hope The Orb - Oxbow Lakes Opeth - Deliverance ELP - Tarkus (Welcome Back My Friends version)   I know some of 'em aren't on PA but I reckon they're prog so...........and my opinion matters!!!!!     I guess I will have to check Just this Once further more. Tom also had it in his first 100. Always sounded like an ordinary TFK song to me but maybe I'm mistaking here. Same goes for PF's Echoes. I checked it lately but it didn't very much impress me. What's wrong with me ?? . (I do like many of your mentioned songs though so there's no huge gap in taste). Are you still going to do a hundred or is this it ? (I know it's a pretty tough job, 100,  did it myself so... )

 

progrules wrote: Roj wrote: progrules wrote:   I guess I will have to check Just this Once further more. Tom also had it in his first 100. Always sounded like an ordinary TFK song to me but maybe I'm mistaking here. Same goes for PF's Echoes. I checked it lately but it didn't very much impress me. What's wrong with me ?? . (I do like many of your mentioned songs though so there's no huge gap in taste). Are you still going to do a hundred or is this it ? (I know it's a pretty tough job, 100,  did it myself so... )   Hi Henk!  How's it going buddy?   I'd actually updated it as you were posting and my list now has over 50.  I've already thought of a few more since then so who knows I may get up to 100!!   Just This Once is a great song for me, from my favourite album of them all.  I just find the instrumental section absolutely spine-chilling.  I love it.   I've been listening to the Floyd, Genesis and Yes stuff for 30 years now.  It's testimony to TFK that I think they're better than any of the old masters.    Good to hear !! I'm not sure if Pablo agrees ...

I meant to say something about Roj including "Just this Once" as well.  It really a great song in my opinion.  I agree, the jazzy little instrumentation section is fantastic and the outtro from the instrumental is spot on as well.  I don't often give Mr. Stolt kudos for his vocal work, but I really like the sound of his voice at times, especially in this song.  The vocals at the end of the instrumental section are perfect for the mood and the song.


Edited by Roland113 - January 08 2010 at 07:03

progrules wrote: The Quiet One wrote: M27Barney wrote: progrules wrote: The Quiet One wrote: I'll do my top 10 first....   1. Thick as a Brick Part 1 - Jethro Tull 2. Echoes - Pink Floyd 3. Dogs - Pink Floyd 4. The Revealing Science of God - Yes 5. Concerto for Group and Orchestra: 1st Movement - Deep Purple(composed by Jon Lord) 6. The Illinois Enema Bandit - Frank Zappa  7. Can-Utility and the Coastliners - Genesis 8. Any Colour you Like - Pink Floyd 9. A Passion Play Part 1 & 2 - Jethro Tull 10. Yours is No Disgrace - Yes     Just one DP song in the top 10 of a DP expert ?? Explain yourself ! And No Flokis in there either, I started to compile my top 200 but I'm stuck on a valid rating system - because I reckon that a longer song that has the wow factor has got to be above a shorter track with a similar wow rating.......And in a lot of cases - the whole CD is sort of a track, i.e The Whirlwind and yet has sub parts which are also tracks ??   I'm a big fan of The Flower  Kings and the like, but I don't think I can consider them in my top 10 of all-time favorite Prog songs, that's because they're not from all-time. On the other hand, Deep purple, Pink Floyd, Yes, Zappa and Jethro Tull I have been listening to them constantly as a little kid, I can't imagine without listening to those bands in the future.   This is exactly what I have against the 70's prog fans (nothing personal, just a general opinion !). So this means that JUST BECAUSE Flower Kings were founded in the nineties they don't count for the ancient progfans. Sounds a bit like a certain guy we had an issue with not too long ago. Well, at least you're not as short sighted to DISLIKE them because of the time aspect. But I don't understand this opinion and how on earth can it be a reason not to put one of their songs in your top list despite all the class stuff they produced ?? I hope I'm not started another quarrel here but such statements just bug me big time. Don't forget I'm also from the seventies but I simply fail to see why that era is per se superior despite the fact I know my classics very well !

Nov wrote: Roj M30 wrote: Nov wrote: I just found an interesting interview with Tomas over at DPRP: http://www.dprp.net/specials/2010_bodin/   Yeah Nov, I'd read that too after infandous mentioned it.   I knew Jaime Salazar was a "paid hand" but thought the rest were fully fledged "members" hence the large input songwriting-wise of Tomas, particularly early on. I'm not surprised the rest of the band save their best stuff for solo albums and projects.  I thought the last Karmakanic album was very strong .  And Tomas's solo albums are very impressive too.   Let's hope Roine decides to make a new TFK album after all.   To be honest, I was rather surprised and shocked to read about how TFK operates.   Of course I always knew that Roine is the driving force and the main visionary behind the band but I never realised that the rest of the guys were essentially hired hands.   I can't help feeling that if (at least) Tomas, Jonas and Hasse had an equal share in the band then the pressure would have been off Roine a bit (financially and artistically) and the band would have been even stronger and not now have an uncertain future.   Of course I love all of the Flower Kings albums but imagine what they could have produced if the other main three members had had more of an input knowing that they would get 25% (or whatever) of the royalties.   I must admit that I'm rather concerned that we'll never see them together as TFK again and that makes me rather sad.     On the other hand, maybe Roine will come back refreshed and richer from Transatlantic and be ready to get the band together again.

Pablo - You are the same age as my youngest son ! He has (in the last 12 months) suddenly developed a taste for prog - Thus I have given him my entire collection that has been ripped to MP3 (He will be left my CD collection when I shuffle off this mortal coil). I cannot imagine what I would have done at the age of 15 if I had been presented with such a enormous amount of music!! At the moment I think that Dream Theater and Opeth are the main bands on his play list. He has hundreds of CD's to select from - I started off listening to pehaps a dozen of vinyl LP's. I think that the production of some of the older stuff may be off putting. I myself probably have 100-200 CD's that I need to give a proper ear to - But do I have the time before I buy more and more............Arrrrrrgh..........

Roj M30 wrote: I think it's great that the likes of Barney and I were into prog back in the late 70s (when most loved Quo, ELO, AC/DC os any one of a number of pop-punk bands) and yet still spend so much bloody money buying new prog albums .   Seriously I've got about 50 new albums in the last 3 months or so and I'm still trying to fully digest them all.  Some albums (Beardfish's Sleeping In Traffic Pt 1 and Opeth's Still Life particularly) I haven't even heard yet .   Tomas Bodin's Pinup Guru has been on my playlist all weekend and this is a fab album (thanks for the tip Henk ).  It brings that DPRP interview right into perspective.  It's clear Tomas has a huge impact on the TFK sound.  The material on his solo albums is right up there with the standard of a lot of TFK stuff.  The way Roine has operated TFK means that I think the band has missed out on some potentially great songwriting from both Tomas and Jonas........  Interesting, eh.   Going back to Pinup Guru, this is basically TFK trimmed down to a 3 piece of Bodin, Reingold and Corsz, with everything written by Tomas.  It really is a superb album.  The rhythm section rocks like crazy and Bodin's keyboard playing is great.  It's not as good as I Am, but it's a great album and for me (based admittedly on my first 4 or 5 listens) sounds as good as most of the later TFK albums.

progrules wrote: I guess I will have to check Just this Once further more. Tom also had it in his first 100. Always sounded like an ordinary TFK song to me but maybe I'm mistaking here. Same goes for PF's Echoes. I checked it lately but it didn't very much impress me. What's wrong with me ?? . (I do like many of your mentioned songs though so there's no huge gap in taste). Are you still going to do a hundred or is this it ? (I know it's a pretty tough job, 100,  did it myself so... )

I love Just This Once.  Was my favorite FK song out of the first 4 albums (including TFK album here).  Garden Of Dreams knocked it down to number 2 though.  Now it's hard to say where it ranks but definitely in my top 10 FK songs.

Echoes.  The first time I heard it I was on 4 hits of LSD, so maybe I have a different view of the song than you?   That one would be in my top 10 songs of all time, if I could get up the motivation to compile such a list.  Definitely my favorite Pink Floyd song without question.


Edited by infandous - January 12 2010 at 13:48

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM!

M27Barney wrote:   Top 50,  I reckon mine would differ considerably, but with some convergance. No Shine on You crazy diamond? and "One For the Vine" which is a strange pick, I am not familiar with Boards of Canada! I will deliver my 50 when I have completed a formula that I am satisfied gives me what I perceive to be my favourite music......