Flower Kings Appreciation Thread

You're very self controlled to resist previewing on the web, Barney 

Got Kaleidoscope Yesterday. Sounds OK on the first couple listens. It's basically Momentum + Desolation Rose. I'm not really a fan of what Roine's been doing recently, especially this heaviness that he brings, and of course Neal's input is nothing different. 

Into The Blue was the better of the two to my ears, on my first 3-4 listens. The section with Daniel's vocals in particular is brilliant.

Kaleidoscope disappointed me at first but it is growing on me. I'm still not convinced there's enough melody there but we'll see.


Edited by TrickedTail - January 25 2014 at 06:25

Well I will try to give Kaleidoscope an equitable listen, without prejudice. It must be hard, for the likes of Stolt - who has now written so much music, what can he do that's new and fresh. Mind you if you are looking for something different don't listen to the new release by TA - listen to Snow Patrol (or whatever!) instead - that seems to be the solution to this predicament!!

I have an alternate solution - I look at my prog collections and select a CD that I've bought and archived, I may have listened to the CD once or maybe not at - all - I probably have a couple of hundred CD's that I have spun once....oh the mystery!!! - and I don't have to go down the path of indy depravity to get my sordid kicks !!!

another thing that i'm tired of is Roine's constant use of minor blues as a goto section for an epic.  they do it all over the place on Kaleidoscope.  it's just so boring and uninteresting when he relies on the wah wah.  maybe mix it up a bit with some auto-wah :-)

Good point, Nov. 

Well I've certainly not fallen out of love with TFK, easily my favourite band. I just commented that whilst the last 2 releases are very good they are not as good as the classic period, that's all. Not got the new TA yet, but the one song I have heard (Black As The Sky) is a killer! Amazon advise me it's on the way, 'bout time.

I don't own anything by Snow Patrol and would be more than likely listening to electronic music at the moment as well as some prog! I doubt if Klaus Schulze and Boards of Canada would go down too well in Ibiza, perhaps at Cafe del Mar but that's about it.

Edited by Roj - January 27 2014 at 03:47

Nov wrote: Some of you guys are obviously completely burnt-out on all things TFK, Morse, TA, etc, etc. Instead of continuously sniping at them, why not just accept that you have fallen out of love with them, enjoy what you used to love about them, and move on? We are all passionate about music here and falling out of love with a band is extremely similar to falling out of love with a partner. You can either decide to stick with them and grow increasingly bitter and sarcastic, or accept that you've both changed and move on. Just saying...........

My love for the Flower Kings has not diminished.  Though I've found the last two albums disappointing, I still find them enjoyable.  Just not near the level of their best work.  They are still my favorite band though.

Morse is a different story.  Even my favorite albums by him are unquestionably formulaic.......I just happen to love the formula.  However, I'm finding that I am getting burnt out on that formula.

I've never been a huge fan of TA, the first album is still my favorite and their best effort by a mile.  Once again though, still find the other albums enjoyable, just not as good as TFK's or even some of Morse's solo stuff (or his Beard albums, for that matter).

I'm getting the new TA, in the next week or so, but I'm just going with the single CD version.  The covers on the last album seemed entirely pointless and uninspired, so I didn't want to bother this time (though the originals were pretty good, so I don't really regret getting the bonus CD for that one).  I've never cared for "making of" DVD's either, so that's not something I ever cared about.

Anyway, I still enjoy symphonic prog, I'm just getting a bit tired of the repetition that many symph bands seem to get stuck in.  I never thought of it as a limited genre, since classical music has such a broad palette and is it's main influence along with rock.  It seems though, that bands focused on this sound tend to fall into the same cliché's fairly regularly.  Again, this isn't always a problem for me.  I just think these guys always create high expectations, so it's not surprising that I get disappointed when they don't meet them.  Doesn't mean I don't still enjoy the music though.........   

It seems to me that a lot of people are getting a little bit "touchy" about the progressive eye of Sauron sweeping across the desolate music-scape as they try to hide behind the shadow cast by whatever non-progressive music (their guilty pleasure) they are currently grooving to. Nobody expects the PROGRESSIVE INQUISITION........