THE SUM OF NO EVIL

Roine Stolt has described the album preceding this, Paradox Hotel, as the Flower Kings' "White Album". If that's so, that'd make this their Abbey Road - one last stab at a cohesive musical vision before they went into a period of hiatus. As on The Rainmaker, the Kings restrain their habit of throwing every single musical idea that occurs to them into the mix and instead offer up something largely focused on one particular approach - an updated version of the classic Yes sound, for the most part, with strong Genesis influences here and there. I don't think it is perfect by any means, but the additional focus provided by the more restrained approach is helpful after three albums where they were a little all over the place. This wasn't the last word from the Flower Kings, of course - but if it had been, it wouldn't have been an embarrassing thing to go out on.