Agreed. Not trying to pressure anyone here, it's just that Roine's TFK IS TFK in everything but name and helps put in context those early TFK albums.
It's like going through Dream Theater's albums for the first time, and not listening to WDADU because JLB isn't there or if it had been released under Majesty as originally intended and IaW was DT's first album; except TFK is all classic TFK right off the bat, whereas WDADU had a different singer and vastly different production compared to what came later. TFK is consistent with BITWOA and Retropolis.
I feel this as well, and in fact, on my phone, I have Roine Stolt's The Flower King double-tagged as both Roine Stolt and The Flower Kings under "album artist" just so it'll appear in both TFK and RS under my artist scroll. Also, that opening title-track is just some of the best feel-good, positive TFK energy music you could ever want, and the band played it regularly through its first 20 years or so.
I'll get to The Flower King at some point, but I'd rather go through the studio albums of The Flower Kings in order first just for consistency.
I also urge you to get Roine's solo album Hydrophonia and Tomas Bodin's An Ordinary Night... album at some point. They're both completely instrumental but fit right into that World Of Adventures/Retropolis era sound-wise.
This a very slippery slope to get into. First it's The Flower Kings, then Roine's solo albums after The Flower Kings (like Hydrophonia), then it's solo albums by Tomas Bodin, then Jonas Reingold's Karmakanic, and then Hasse Froberg & Musical Companion. Not to mention early Tangent albums, the trio of Agents Of Mercy albums (though I would forgive you for not getting into them, listening to Nad Sylvan's voice is an acquired taste)... once you dive head first into the Flower Kings extended family tree, there's no going back. Heck, I even own the Hasse Bruniusson 2002 album Flying Food Circus, and the 2006 DVD Tour De Ville, the former of which features Roine Stolt on bass, guitars, keyboards, and co-producer of the album as well.
There's just SO much to explore once you start looking into the band and its various members. You may even find yourself getting into Pain Of Salvation once you get to the point of TFK where Daniel Gildenlow had joined the band, which goes back to the must-see/must-listen live album, Meet The Flower Kings, which features an impressive 7-member line-up, performing just six songs with a total length of over 150 minutes!
But I hope this doesn't overwhelm you. If anything, I hope it excites you, knowing there's a whole family tree of symphonic prog rock out there that you've yet to discover, with various branches involving its members working solo, and often times together on each other's albums. Heck, one-time TFK drummer Marcus Liliequist was only on *one* TFK studio album, but appeared on multiple TFK-related albums from Tomas Bodin, Karmakanic, and Roine Stolt, before, during, and after his time in The Flower Kings.
This thread has also prompted me to give Stolt's 1994 The Flower King a spin, and man, what a powerful opening song! That's a melody that'll sit in your ear for days!
-Marc.