Flower Kings Appreciation Thread

darkshade wrote: It's so good. I don't know why it's not as liked as other albums.

It suffers from the same problem as many other latest albums from bands that are well established - people had a lot of expectations and didn't give the album a chance to sink in.

Edited by dtguitarfan - June 04 2012 at 09:17

darkshade wrote: dtguitarfan wrote: darkshade wrote: It's so good. I don't know why it's not as liked as other albums. It suffers from the same problem as many other latest albums from bands that are well established - people had a lot of expectations and didn't give the album a chance to sink in. That's what I figure. TSONE was the second album I got by the band, so I was mostly unfamiliar with their discography at the time, and I thought this one was more well received when it came out.

It was very well received.  I just think for those of us who have followed them for a long time, it wasn't quite up to expectations.  Personally, I love it, but I rate it somewhere in the middle of their albums.  To tell the truth, I prefer everything from Space Revolver and earlier, to everything after that, in general (UTF is a notable exception, but even then, it's not my favorite album of theirs).  For me there is just a certain something in those early albums that went missing after Space Revolver and never came back.  I can't really define it, but I know it every time I listen to the albums.

Having said that, there is not any FK album I rate as less than very good.


Edited by infandous - June 04 2012 at 11:13

Gazagod, great to hear and welcome to the thread.  As you'll no doubt, we're chock full of opinions and recommendations on all things Flower Kings.  Space Revolver is one of my favorites and The Rainmaker has a bunch of great tunes on it as well.

gazagod wrote: i like this band... via youtube.. some fellow on this board clued me into the lasercd.com sale of a couple of their albums for a couple bucks a piece... nice and thanks!  and now im listening to 'space revolver' and 'the rainmaker' on the cheap... very nice songcraft and i love the heavy bass production... often, it occurs to me, that the independently produced albums are the best if not (but often) because of the songwriting, but because of the spacious, non-compressed production/engineering... yes.. i enjoy...a feast for the ears and mind ... like the jazzy, 'show-tuney' interludes

Edited by Nov - June 05 2012 at 16:16

infandous wrote:   It was very well received. I just think for those of us who have followed them for a long time, it wasn't quite up to expectations. Personally, I love it, but I rate it somewhere in the middle of their albums. To tell the truth, I prefer everything from Space Revolver and earlier, to everything after that, in general (UTF is a notable exception, but even then, it's not my favorite album of theirs). For me there is just a certain something in those early albums that went missing after Space Revolver and never came back.  I can't really define it, but I know it every time I listen to the albums. Having said that, there is not any FK album I rate as less than very good.

My copy of Tomas Bodin - "Sonic Boulevard" came in today. Can't wait to hear it!!!

zumacraig wrote: darkshade wrote: My copy of Tomas Bodin - "Sonic Boulevard" came in today. Can't wait to hear it!!! where did you get it?  i'm trying to fill in some gaps in my TFK family collection and am finding some stuff is out of print and way overpriced used.  i've found some stuff, but bodin's albums are proving difficult.

Ordered it from my local shop. It was their last copy.

Listening to Sonic Boulevard right now. Really sounds like instrumental TFK with a little world music influence, and more spacey. Like it! Pretty dark in some sections. One thing I'm noticing is that I feel like Jonas' bass is too low in the mix, which Ive never ever felt was a problem with pretty much any other album with his name on it. Good album so far, based on first listen.

Horizons wrote: I haven't been liking TFK sadly. I'll try again in the future, for now i'll live with my passion for The Tangent.

What did you try? You never kept us updated.

Horizons wrote: Some of Space Revolver and  Unfold the Future.

Word of advice, based on my own experience:

You have to give The Flower Kings albums at least a couple of listens before anything grabs you. I think it's a matter of wrapping your head around the music and anticipating what's coming next in a song, since their music is very dense. Even after getting into the band and owning a few albums, subsequent albums always required multiple listens, but by then, I knew that. The Tangent definitely have that element that grabs you right away (usually it's the grooves from Jonas and Zoltan or Jaime for me).

I say, keep trying. Go back to those 2 albums before trying other albums.