FEATURED ALBUM: Roine Stolt - The Flower King

[Plasmatopia]

The very last line in the liner notes on my booklet....
"And Jon Andersson, you're still the greatest!"

I presume he means the ultimate Flower Person himself. It's consistent with all of the lyrical awkwardness contained within the album.

I may have to look again and use my reading glasses this time, lol.

[infandous]

This is a great album, easily my favorite of Stolt's solo albums, but like most people I tend to think of it as the first TFK album. In that regard, it's not my favorite TFK album, but it ranks pretty high. The title track is actually a brilliant encapsulation of almost everything TFK would become. I used to hate the chorus of that song, but I have become less of a prog snob over the years and find that is really is a good chorus. I can understand some people's dislike of the lyrics, as I thought they were bit too sappy and Christian-centric back when I first started listening to the album. Now however, I appreciate the positive, upbeat vibe of a lot of Roine's lyrics and was actually disappointed that his lyrics became rather dark and gloomy on the last two TFK albums that were released.

Anyway, the instrumentals are still my favorite parts of this album, especially Pilgrim's Inn and Magic Circus of Zeb. Dissonatta is probably my favorite Stolt solo song of them all, and certainly one of the best things he's ever written for any project.

[bill g]

Listened to this the other day. I don't like it as much as I used to, but there were many great moments too. 'Pilgrims Inn' as my favorite these days, just a beautiful piece of music, but there's something to be said for every track. I've always loved the first 3 tracks. Sometimes the wah-wah gets overused in my opinion, but that's just me. Roine is an excellent player and writer.

[progfan915]

Fantastic album; I enjoy every song on it! For those who like Humanizzimo, check out the live version on Meet the Flower Kings, with Daniel Gildenlow sharing some of the vocals. IMO it surpasses the studio version.

[bill g]

Yep, everything on Meet... is fabulous. Great set list.

[Splicer]

This album and the recent Roine Stolt's The Flower King show me unequivocally that the addition of Tomas Bodin was the secret ingredient that made the Flower Kings what they were. His compositions and arrangements have always been for me what makes TFK albums special.

[progfan915]

This album and the recent Roine Stolt's The Flower King show me unequivocally that the addition of Tomas Bodin was the secret ingredient that made the Flower Kings what they were. His compositions and arrangements have always been for me what makes TFK albums special.

Agreed, big Tomas fan here. My least favorite FK album is the one he didn’t play on; the Rainmaker

[calyx]

Agreed, big Tomas fan here. My least favorite FK album is the one he didn’t play on; the Rainmaker

? What makes you say he didn't play on it ?

[Splicer]

Agreed, big Tomas fan here. My least favorite FK album is the one he didn’t play on; the Rainmaker

Bodin is on that album. The only ones he's not on are the bookend "Roine Stolt" ones. That said, the album I'm least happy about is The Sum of No Evil which I think is fine but it's by-the-numbers all the way through. Oddly enough, Bodin's solo album afterwards (the name escapes me) contains what sounds like unused pieces from the FK sessions and they are quite nice. Also a warmer production than on TSONE.

[progfan915]

There was a recent interview Roine did where he was kind of defending his decision to tour with only some FK members and not others (i.e. Tomas). In it he says that during the rainmaker sessions Tomas was going through a really bad divorce and was not able to be there so Roine did the keyboards but still gave Tomas credit for playing on the album.

[yesstiles]

There was a recent interview Roine did where he was kind of defending his decision to tour with only some FK members and not others (i.e. Tomas). In it he says that during the rainmaker sessions Tomas was going through a really bad divorce and was not able to be there so Roine did the keyboards but still gave Tomas credit for playing on the album.

My guess would be that Roine forgot to include the word some.

[Splicer]

There was a recent interview Roine did where he was kind of defending his decision to tour with only some FK members and not others (i.e. Tomas). In it he says that during the rainmaker sessions Tomas was going through a really bad divorce and was not able to be there so Roine did the keyboards but still gave Tomas credit for playing on the album.

That's new information to me. Interesting.