Flower Kings Appreciation Thread

The first one is 'ok' to my ears at least.  I've said this before, but the original intent of the first Agents of Mercy CD was supposed to be a light acoustic thing that slowly morphed (during the writing / recording stage) into something proggier.  As such, it sounds rather confused and disjointed at times.  My understanding is that the new one started out as a progressive project and has really energized Roine Stolt.

My suggestion is start with the second one when it's available then if you like it enough to hear what it originated from go for the debut at that point.

Yeah, agree with Tom on this.  I would say though, that if you like early to mid Genesis then there is quite a bit of that vibe on the better songs of the first Agents album.  However, this is mixed with folky tracks and the over all feel gets a bit "prog muzak" at times to my ears.  But the next Agents sounds like it could be something much more interesting.

Hmm... No one has posted in the FK's thread today...

I've being meaning to get I Am.

But we have to admit, it's hard to choose a favorite out of that extremely consistent discography. (Except Rainmaker maybe )

The Truth wrote: But we have to admit, it's hard to choose a favorite out of that extremely consistent discography. (Except Rainmaker maybe )

Again, you resemble your moniker.

Although, I gave The Rainmaker a good listen last night / this morning.  I'm not certain why it gets such a bad rap.  There's a lot of good stuff on there.  I'm going to listen to it a few times over the next week and think I may actually do a review (it's been about a year) but there are a lot of reoccurring themes interspersed.  I think that both Hasse Froeberg and Jonas Reingold step really start to find their place in the band on this one.

I'm just sayin' that I'm digging this album at the moment.

Roland113 wrote: The Truth wrote: But we have to admit, it's hard to choose a favorite out of that extremely consistent discography. (Except Rainmaker maybe ) Again, you resemble your moniker. Although, I gave The Rainmaker a good listen last night / this morning.  I'm not certain why it gets such a bad rap.  There's a lot of good stuff on there.  I'm going to listen to it a few times over the next week and think I may actually do a review (it's been about a year) but there are a lot of reoccurring themes interspersed.  I think that both Hasse Froeberg and Jonas Reingold step really start to find their place in the band on this one. I'm just sayin' that I'm digging this album at the moment.

Well, it's a WAY better album than Adam & Eve, that's for sure

Okay, that is how it is to my ears and brain, at least.  But yeah, when Rainmaker was released it was a bit of a disappointment to me.  Compare it to the albums directly before and after, and for me it's pretty obvious why.  I also saw the, at the time, new line up with Zoltan and was totally blown away.  Salazar's phoned in drum performance on Rainmaker just can't compare to what he played on SR or what Zoltan did on UTF.  I still consider Rainmaker to be kind of a stop gap album, something to release between two truly great albums.  But over time, I've come to realize that it's a very good album on it's own merits with some really great FK songs on there.  But still near the bottom of my FK album rankings.

^ Gus, you like "I Am" better than "Paradox Hotel"?  if memory serves me, you are pretty high on Paradox too aren't you? 

hmm, I may have to give "I Am" another listen.  When I first heard it, I thought it was ok, but nothing spectacular.  At the time, e-music offered you the opportunity to buy like one hundred songs for ten bucks or something.  There wasn't any regulation on song length at the time so quite a few of the things that I bought were based on "how many tracks were on the album".  I own "I Am" and "Slow Dance" by Anthony Phillips mostly because they were full length albums that had three and two songs respectively.

Roland ? Your TFK playcounts on last.fm are insane, I just checked it. You have even more playcounts than I do (I thought that among us, Prog Rockers, I'm the one with one of the biggest plays around).

I do listen them too, but not that much. I recently reviewed Paradox Hotel with 5 star. It deserves it. Then I was listening their first album, but it's not that great.

Mr snowydog. I've thought a long time about that question. I asked the wife and family and even my drummer. We all agree that as long as you don't make a habit of it, on this occasion you can say that.
Please now go forth and say it.
Colin