Retropolis (1996)Tomas Bodin - keyboards
Hans Bruniusson - percussion
Hasse Fröberg - vocals
Jaime Salazar - drums
Michael Stolt - bass guitar
Roine Stolt - vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass guitar
Ulf Wallander - soprano saxophone
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1. "Rhythm Of Life"
2. "Retropolis"
3. "Rhythm Of The Sea"
4. "There Is More To This World"
5. "Romancing The City"
6. "The Melting Pot"
7. "Silent Sorrow"
8. "The Judas Kiss"
9. "Retropolis By Night"
10. "Flora Majora"
11. "The Road Back Home"
(tracks 1,5 and 9 written by Tomas Bodin; tracks 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11 written by Roine Stolt)
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The band's sophomore effort, Retropolis, is a record that I feel gets overlooked a lot, but it's one of their best. In fact, I would argue it is probably their best and most consistent single album. If you look at the eight full-length songs - not counting the Rhythm of Life intro, the Romancing the City piano intro to The Melting Pot, and Retropolis by Night, which is kind of a transitional piece of music, IMO - the consistency is astonishing. Anyone could put those eight songs in any order of preference, and I'd have a hard time arguing with it; all of those songs are that good.
While Back in the World of Adventures had very much of a hard rock edge on multiple tunes, that edge is non-existent on Retropolis. Instead, Retropolis has a very organic, almost-laid back overall feel, as they really stretch out and allow the songs to breathe with many moments of simplicity, like the acoustic guitar outro in the title track, the piano work and understated electric guitar work at the end of Rhythm of the Sea, or the piano breakdown in the middle of The Judas Kiss. Not saying the debut didn't have those type of laid back moments, too, but while there are certainly some rocking moments on Retropolis, they aren't as hard as those on the first record.
Notable is how so much of their material early on was largely instrumental. Only five of the 11 tracks have vocals, and the majority of those have extended instrumental sections, so they were bringing the instrumental prog in a big, big way. Also notable is the middle section of There Is More to This World, where Froberg gets his first lead vocal section. And he does a great job with it.
I have to give a special shout-out, too, to Silent Sorrow, which is arguably the most important song in my development as a TFK fan. I know I have told this story before, but I had bought three of their CDs in the summer of 2000, but wasn't really feeling them overall as a band, although my main musical attentions were admittedly on other bands at that time. Then, one day I put Retropolis on really loud and ended up falling asleep for a bit, and when I woke up, Silent Sorrow was just starting and I just laid there, slowly coming out my slumber, as the tune kicked my groggy ass. I love little moments like that when you get into a song or band.
The album cover is probably my 2nd favorite of theirs. It is very striking, and in a good way.
To sum up, I love this record like crazy.