Flower Kings Appreciation Thread

dtguitarfan wrote: Horizons wrote: The vocals are terrible, even when they're compared to The Tangent. Plus the whole atmosphere just puts me off, and slightly cringe.  I find this humorous because I got into TFK before trying The Tangent, and I thought The Tangent's vocals were awful. Is it just me or are the vocals on their live album very pitchy?

While I like Andy Tillison's vocals, they can't hold a candle to any of the Flower Kings vocalists.......though he and Stolt are similar in a lot of ways, vocally.

For me, Tillison's vocals actually took quite a while to get into, and it was only the Peter Hammill similarities that drew me in.  He also reminds me of John Lennon, believe it or not.  As far as pitch, yeah, he tends to be flat quite a bit, especially live.  However, Roine does the same thing. In the end though, I really enjoy both of their vocals, because they both put emotion and conviction behind every word they sing.  I've mentioned before that Froberg can get on my nerves sometimes, which is something that has developed for me since sometime after Unfold was released.  To my ears, he can be a bit shrill at times.  However, when both he and Roine sing together, I think it works great.  I loved when Gildenlow was in the band, and wouldn't have been disappointed if he had replaced Froberg (though really, I don't think that would have worked in the long run, as it would have changed the dynamic too much........Gildenlow worked best in the guest capacity).

I liked Roine's vocals the first time I heard them (Rhythm of the Sea, from Retropolis), as they reminded me a lot of John Wetton.  He has a lot of character in his voice, and as I mentioned above, a lot of feeling and conviction.  I can, however, totally understand why someone might not enjoy them.


Edited by infandous - June 06 2012 at 13:12

Horizons wrote: darkshade wrote: Horizons wrote: The vocals are terrible, even when they're compared to The Tangent. Plus the whole atmosphere just puts me off, and slightly cringe.  For which album? Unfold the Future has Daniel Gildenlow on vocals for a few songs (on disc 2), you don't like his vocals? There's also a lot of jazz improv on that album. That's funny because I think Hasse Froberg's vocals are superior to Andy Tillison's. I understand Roine's vocals can be an acquired taste, but Hasse is featured prominently on UtF. When it comes to the vocals (for most bands anyway), I let the music do the talking, and I sort out my problems with the vocals later (unless they're really friggin bad, which I don't believe TFK's vocals are). I'm not sure which vocalist i disliked, i didn't try to differentiate. I'm not sure, i'll take your advice and try the 2 albums again later on up the road.

Sounds good. It took me almost 5 years to get into TFK, but that's because every time I gave them a shot, I listened to a different album each time, thinking I may have heard the wrong one or something. When I finally decided to try an album I had already heard before, that's when I started to get into them. I also went into their material looking for the jazziest prog I could find, which is not a good idea as their sound is too eclectic for that; you have to just go in with an open mind, in my opinion.

Horizons wrote: The vocals are terrible, even when they're compared to The Tangent. Plus the whole atmosphere just puts me off, and slightly cringe.

For which album? Unfold the Future has Daniel Gildenlow on vocals for a few songs (on disc 2), you don't like his vocals? There's also a lot of jazz improv on that album.

That's funny because I think Hasse Froberg's vocals are superior to Andy Tillison's. I understand Roine's vocals can be an acquired taste, but Hasse is featured prominently on UtF.

When it comes to the vocals (for most bands anyway), I let the music do the talking, and I sort out my problems with the vocals later (unless they're really friggin bad, which I don't believe TFK's vocals are).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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