Author Topic: Flower Kings Official Thread  (Read 231091 times)

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Offline RoeDent

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Re: Flower Kings Official Thread - v. new studio album in '19 (first since '13)!!
« Reply #1330 on: December 21, 2019, 01:24:09 PM »
I enjoyed The Rainmaker this time around far more than I have done before.

Offline RoeDent

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Re: Flower Kings Official Thread - v. new studio album in '19 (first since '13)!!
« Reply #1331 on: February 06, 2020, 07:24:49 AM »
Let's get this out of the way. I know some of you probably think I shouldn't be allowed anywhere near this album, but I picked up Waiting for Miracles today. While I still find the disc split utterly daft, it's still an immensely solid album, even after just one listen. The "Save your miracles" riff is an instant earworm. Vertigo is an incredible track. It absolutely fits in alongside the rest of TFK's discography, even with the lineup changes in the band.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Flower Kings Official Thread - v. new studio album in '19 (first since '13)!!
« Reply #1332 on: February 06, 2020, 03:38:52 PM »
I gave it a few spins and liked it, but it didn't really click with me.  TFK is very much a spring and summer band for me, so I will give it a bunch of fresh spins once spring rolls around.

Offline RoeDent

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Re: Flower Kings Official Thread - v. new studio album in '19 (first since '13)!!
« Reply #1333 on: February 07, 2020, 02:34:57 PM »
I do have one question though. For some reason, the track metadata said "Miracles for America [Edit]". Seems like a pretty full song to me. If the edit is 10:03, goodness knows how long the "full" version is.

Another result of hearing Waiting for Miracles is that it's given me the urge to give Manifesto of an Alchemist another chance. I haven't listened to that for months.

Offline DTA

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I have been completely obsessed with The Merrygoround lately. I'm literally waking up out of sleep with Roine's vocal melody at the end of the song swimming in my head - "And the angels sang, sweetly the blues away, and I will bend this starless night into day". Possibly the most dreamy segment of all TFK music. The first half of the song is cool too even though it's all over the place - it goes from crazy quick 5/8 prog-rock, to a random almost-calypso sounding part, to a weird 60's sounding Monkees-type segment, then into the dreamy outro with a badass Roine solo. During their heydey, they could pack more interesting things into an 8 minute song than most bands could do with an entire 20 minute epic.
 

Offline HOF

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Stardust We Are recently clicked with me as an album in a way it hadn’t before after having it for about 15-16 years. I used to only listen to select tracks, but for some reason I’ve really started to love playing it as a whole.

I love the drums on The Merrygoround.

Offline KevShmev

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There are certain sections of Flower Kings that I cannot NOT sing along to, and the below from The Merrygoround is one of them:

Number one, still undone
Number two, feeling blue
Number three, late for tea
Number four, here for more
Number five, still alive
Number six, need a fix
Number seven, gone to heaven
Number eight, always late
Number nine, feeling fine
Number ten, lost again

As for others on Stardust We Are, I may have mentioned this before, but it recent years The End of Innocence has become one of my most-listened-to songs from any TFK record.  That song is so good.  :hefdaddy :hefdaddy

Offline HOF

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By the way, if anyone has any leads on a place to find a reasonably priced copy of Back in the World of Adventures let me know. Everything on Amazon is like $35+. Hate how hard it is getting to track down older CDs these days.

Offline Fritzinger

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By the way, if anyone has any leads on a place to find a reasonably priced copy of Back in the World of Adventures let me know. Everything on Amazon is like $35+. Hate how hard it is getting to track down older CDs these days.

Welcome to the world of a vinyl collector  :biggrin:


Stardust We Are recently clicked with me as an album in a way it hadn’t before after having it for about 15-16 years. I used to only listen to select tracks, but for some reason I’ve really started to love playing it as a whole.

I love the drums on The Merrygoround.

I never really got into Stardust We Are as an album, but I do love the opener and Circus Brimstone. Maybe I should listen to the album a bit more. It is still regarded as one of the band's greatest.

For me, the deciding element of the band is often the drummer. I think, Zoltan Czörsz (hope that's correct) remains their best drummer, although Felix Lehrmann is also a beast (he's the same drummer that plays in Martin Miller's session band https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_HeVyc5-GY). But he was never given the freedom on the studio records that Zoltan was.
Knowing what great drummers have played on TFK music, the other drummers fall short a little bit.
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Offline DTA

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Stardust We Are recently clicked with me as an album in a way it hadn’t before after having it for about 15-16 years. I used to only listen to select tracks, but for some reason I’ve really started to love playing it as a whole.

I love the drums on The Merrygoround.

I love the jazzier drumming they had on the later albums, but Jaime's more "rock-oriented" drumming was better imo. The drumming is really cool on The Merrygoround. The whole SWA album is great...there's so many awesome moments throughout and I love the balance between instrumental and vocal songs they had on those earlier albums. I know the disc 1 songs get a bit more attention, but disc 2 is one awesome song after another.

There are certain sections of Flower Kings that I cannot NOT sing along to, and the below from The Merrygoround is one of them:

Number one, still undone
Number two, feeling blue
Number three, late for tea
Number four, here for more
Number five, still alive
Number six, need a fix
Number seven, gone to heaven
Number eight, always late
Number nine, feeling fine
Number ten, lost again

As for others on Stardust We Are, I may have mentioned this before, but it recent years The End of Innocence has become one of my most-listened-to songs from any TFK record.  That song is so good.  :hefdaddy :hefdaddy

I've heard this song a million times and I cannot recite a single lyric besides the ones at the end of the song. The End of Innocence is a real sleeper track...great vibe and mood. The keyboard intro is the same one on the old Kaipa track Skenet Bedrar too.

Offline KevShmev

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It just goes to show you that songs always matter more than anything else, even when it comes to a band this overtly proggy.  Zoltan Csörsz, IMO, is undoubtedly the best drummer they have had, but he doesn't play on any of what I consider their best albums, while their best album, Paradox Hotel, has probably the least best drummer they have had, Marcus Liliequist.  The real pisser is all three albums with Csörsz sound amazing sonically and dynamically, but the songwriting is a little inconsistent on each (although each has some great stuff).

Offline HOF

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Yeah, Unfold the Future has been really difficult for me to get into. I really like Silent Inferno, and the drumming is killer, but boy there sure is a whole lot of filler.

Offline KevShmev

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The funny thing for me and Unfold the Future is, there is nothing on it I dislike.  If I have 2 1/2 hours to kill :lol, I can listen to all of it and enjoy it all, but it only has a few songs I consider absolutely essential.  And no, The Truth Will Set You Free, which is enjoyable but waaaaay too long, is not one of them.

Offline Fritzinger

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The funny thing for me and Unfold the Future is, there is nothing on it I dislike.  If I have 2 1/2 hours to kill :lol, I can listen to all of it and enjoy it all, but it only has a few songs I consider absolutely essential.  And no, The Truth Will Set You Free, which is enjoyable but waaaaay too long, is not one of them.

The musicianship on that album is just outstanding. There are only a few examples in prog where I have heard a better rhythm section than Jonas and Zoltan.

Also, I know I have said that already, but: I am still absolutely furious with Roine, because he deleted like 6 minutes of The Devil's Playground for the remastered vinyl LP. He totally ruined the song with that. I cannot understand why he would do that. Just had to say that again.
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Offline KevShmev

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I am not furious with him, but it was most disappointing.  I still have the original release with the full song and that is my go-to version.  Heck, I never even bought the remaster last year, although a friend did and played me the bastardized version.  Sure, it's a little more concise, but I missed the deleted sections.  Oh well, like I said, the original is still there for all of us who don't want the revisionist history version. :tup :tup

Offline RoeDent

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I was disappointed too. There's always a feeling I'm missing out on something with that song now, and it tarnishes the experience of listening to the whole album. What made it all the more disappointing was that the back cover of both the Kingdom of Colours box, and the UTF wallet, had the 25-minute time listed, as if there was no change.

And it's not necessarily an issue with revisionism that I have. Sometimes it works great, like Gavin Harrison's drums on the Porcupine Tree Up the Downstair reissue. Something like that doesn't alter the basic structure of the song. Cutting out anything, let alone six entire minutes of it, is wrong. The song should stand as is, for better or worse.

Offline HOF

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Roine Stolt has written a ton of great music in his life, but I almost think his greatest achievement is writing a song as infectious and joyful as Chicken Farmer Song. It’s so great.

Offline KevShmev

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Roine Stolt has written a ton of great music in his life, but I almost think his greatest achievement is writing a song as infectious and joyful as Chicken Farmer Song. It’s so great.

Hell yeah, I love that song!  Roine does the happy, summery songs really well, and that is one of his better crafted short songs. 

I have listened to a ton of TFK in the last two weeks, as is the norm every year once spring hits and we start getting 60-70 degree weather regularly, and gave Space Revolver a whirl last week and it sounded as good as ever.

I also think the new album is good, with a few really good songs.  I don't think it is one of their better albums, and in fact I suspect it will likely rate near the bottom for me, but it is still a nice little album. 

Offline HOF

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Different People is another one I’ve always really liked.

Offline DTA

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The happy/positive songs (or sections) are part of the reason why I think their output from ‘95-‘00 is their best stuff. Once The Rainmaker hit, everything got darker overall with some exceptions (End On A High Note stands out). Chicken Farmer Song is excellent and has always been a favorite, along with Different People, The Merrygoround, My Cosmic Lover, and Stupid Girl.

Haven’t touched the new album since December but I’ve been playing the shit out of Stardust We Are. Maybe I’ll listen to Miracles on my bike today and see how it’s held up. Ascending To The Stars and We Were Always Here were the standouts at that time.

Offline KevShmev

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Different People has always been a favorite of mine as well from Stardust We Are.

From the new album, I would agree that Ascending to the Stars and We Were Always Here are two of the standouts, along with The Bridge, The Crowning of Greed, Spirals and Steampunk.

Offline RoeDent

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It's short, but Busking at Brobank has been an earworm in recent days. Although as I recently realized, it's a reprise of a section in Steampunk.

It's a really good album, all in all.

Meanwhile I'm currently listening to Space Revolver. Probably my favourite single-disc TFK album.

Offline KevShmev

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Space Revolver and Retropolis are neck and neck for my favorite TFK single album. Both are awesome from start to finish.

Adam & Eve is aging very well for me as well, and I love how it sounds.  The bass on that one is so warm and deep when you crank it up. :coolio

Offline DTA

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It's short, but Busking at Brobank has been an earworm in recent days. Although as I recently realized, it's a reprise of a section in Steampunk.

It's a really good album, all in all.

Meanwhile I'm currently listening to Space Revolver. Probably my favourite single-disc TFK album.

Yeah I like Busking a lot too. I wish it was exactly expanded a bit more rather than being a short outro.

Offline The Letter M

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So I'm spinning The Sum Of No Evil today and I'm at "Life In Motion" and realized that the latest TFK album is a reference to the lyrics! "We wait for miracles" is sung in LIM, and of course, Waiting For Miracles was the title of their latest album.

Coincidence? Then again, TSONE was loaded with references to older TFK material, so it's funny that it would lyrically "predict" the title of a future album! Am I the only one who has noticed this here?  :lol

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Offline KevShmev

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I have to imagine that is a coincidence.  Roine has certain uncommon words or phrases he likes to use more than once.  How many times has he used the word brimstone in a song? (not even counting the instrumental Circus Brimstone :lol)

Offline Kyo

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I have to imagine that is a coincidence.  Roine has certain uncommon words or phrases he likes to use more than once.  How many times has he used the word brimstone in a song? (not even counting the instrumental Circus Brimstone :lol)

Or something about cocoons.
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Offline DTA

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Or child - pronounced "shiled"

BTW - The Sum Of No Evil is easily TFK album I've listened to the least. I disliked it upon first listen, and have never taken a liking to it. One More Time is their weakest opener by far, the songs are too long, the epic unremarkable, and aside from the badass riff in The Sum Of No Reason, nothing has ever stood out. I'm going to put it on rotation and see how it stands up.

Offline Fritzinger

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I'm one of the few people who really likes The Sum Of No Evil, apparently. I've spun it more often than any of their first 4 albums. I think, while One More Time is not the greatest TFK song, the opening motif is pretty awesome. And I love Love Is The Only Answer. Perfectly constructed, flowing longtrack.
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Offline HOF

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Roine also likes to write songs about Judas and the devil.

Offline KevShmev

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It's still one of my least favorite TFK studio albums, but I do like The Sum of No Evil more than I used to.  Nothing on it stands out as one of their best songs, but it's a nice listen from start to finish, and it sure does help that it sonically sounds awesome.  Such a warm, organic and lush-sounding record.

Offline RoeDent

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Umm...so I'm listening to Life in Motion, the last track off The Sum of No Evil, and during a quiet passage around 7:56-ish, I just spotted the looped sample from Mommy Leave the Light On. ("...leav e the light on...the light on...the light on...")

I listened to Desolation Rose earlier, for the first time in ages. Now I've decided to run through the bonus tracks from this album on the Kingdom of Colours 3rd bonus disc. I...can see why these are relegated this way. Hardly any vocals, most of them are just instrumental jams.
« Last Edit: May 15, 2020, 12:58:08 PM by RoeDent »

Offline KevShmev

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I am much more likely to listen to the bonus songs from Desolation Rose than I am the songs from the proper album.  Interstellar Visitations is by far the best song from those sessions.

I forgot about that Mommy, Leave the Light On reference in Life in Motion, but good catch.

Offline DTA

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Desolation Rose as a whole is pretty great, especially disc 2 as you said. Lots of short songs with memorable melodies which is something I always appreciate. Agreed on Interstellar Visitations...great song.

Sum Of No Evil has risen a bit in my eyes. I played through it 5 times last week and found it pretty enjoyable. It's still near the lower end of their discography for me, but I'm more likely to listen to it again now that I know I like it.

Offline The Letter M

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Re: Desolation Rose. When it initially came out, I liked it a lot more than Banks Of Eden, and the bonus disc stuff felt just as good, if not better, than the main disc stuff. Like I typically did with TFK albums, I re-ordered the songs from both discs to create a proper double album that has a good flow between songs and instrumentals, at least IMO. For the curious, here's the track list, but I also edited some tracks in Audacity so that they segue together, particularly the last two in my order:

Disc 1 - 45:21
Tower ONE
Burning Spears
Lazy Monkey
The Wailing Wall
Dark Fascist Skies
Psalm 2013
Sleeping Bones
Desolation Road
White Tuxedos

Disc 2 - 46:26
The Resurrected Judas
Silent Masses
Last Carnivore
Badbeats
Runaway Train
Interstellar Visitations
Blood Of Eden
Silent Graveyards
The Final ERA

I remember carefully placing certain songs in this order, probably because of how they flowed into each other, or perhaps to reflect musical or lyrical references, such as "Burning Spears" being mentioned near the beginning of "Tower ONE". I also made it so that each disc would be able to split into a single vinyl across two sides, so I made sure the songs fit with that in mind as well.

It's been a little while since I've listened to it, though, but I really enjoyed this order, and it made the whole album better for me over-all.

-Marc.
« Last Edit: May 15, 2020, 10:46:18 PM by The Letter M »
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