It's time for my annual listen of the entire TFK studio album discography in chronological order. I will take the CDs with me while driving my car each day and give each one a full run-through or two, then post my thoughts here (which will take several days between albums). We open with the first album which was actually a Roine Stolt "solo" album called "The Flower King".
After 2 listens, I find I still love it as much as the first time I heard it. A solid 5 stars. Much of what is here would be a template for later albums while other aspects of the sound would develop over time. For example, Hasse Froberg only makes a vocal appearance on the magnificent title track (and the closing reprise of the title theme, called "Scanning the Greenhouse"). I know for some listeners that's a good thing but I always like a good balance of Hasse/Roine vocals on TFK albums. The wacky percussion/sound effects of Hasse Bruniesson are barely evident, in fact I was surprised to see from reading the liner notes that he split the main drumming duties with Jamie Salazar. I always assumed Salazar did all the drumming. There's also very few "big heavy riff" parts that would appear more often in later albums. The guitar work and tone -- beautiful. I also noticed bass pedals which I never heard before, probably because I've always owned cheap stereo equipment. Not that my car stereo is top-of-the-line either but for some reason I can hear them now in my car.
As always with TFK albums, I'm never quite sure where I am in a song. Sometimes a song sounds like it ended and a new one has started but it turns out to be still part of the same song. It's crazy that I love a band this much and you could drop me into the middle of a song and I couldn't even tell you which song it is half the time. I guess that's partly a symptom of how I listen to music now; it was different as a youngster in the 70's when you could curl up with an album in your room and absorb it and look at the cover and liner notes. Now I listen while doing something else, usually driving, and I'm not studying the CD case so I often don't know the titles of songs, even with bands other than TFK. Even so, it's not a bad thing with TFK since I just love their sound and the good feeling I get from it, regardless of whether I know which song I'm listening to at the moment.
Your thoughts on the debut album?
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Originally Posted by Garden Dreamer
I do the same thing with The Flower Kings (and a few other bands). I find I notice the natural progression of bands this way. Sometimes I notice the lack of progression as well. For TFK, I started in the middle and have worked my way forwards and backwards and now own everything you have listed here. You rate the first three a little higher than I would, but I can't disagree with most of what you said. Retropolis was my first, but still feels uneven to me.
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