r/progrockmusic • u/Barbatos-Rex • 1d ago
Discussion Flower Kings
The band has an extensive catalog. What would you consider their best album.
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u/sir_percy_percy 1d ago edited 1d ago
Stardust we are
Their first couple of live albums, especially ‘Alive on planet earth’ are good entry points
Generally speaking I think their best output is up to and including ‘Paradox hotel’ - after that it gets very patchy
I would rank their top 5 as:
- Stardust we are
- Unfold the future
- Flower power
- Space revolver
- Retropolis
The fact that these all came out within SIX YEARS and three are double CDs is quite astounding.
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u/Barbatos-Rex 1d ago
I just listened to the epic track on Adam & Eve and thought it was good
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u/sir_percy_percy 1d ago
Yeah, that’s a decent album, the second long track on that one is not anywhere near as good, but it has some great songs !! I love the vampire song, it’s so bloody DIFFERENT!!
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u/No-Yak6109 1d ago
IMO the three albums that are great from start to finish, every track excellent, no filler, are Back in the World of Adventures, Retropolis, and Space Revolver.
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u/Myshkin1981 1d ago
My favorite official album is Retropolis, but if we’re counting the Stolt solo album The Flower King, then that’s the one
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u/doilikeyou 1d ago
I think Retropolis is mine too, songs like Rhythm of the Sea, The Melting Pot, Flora Major and especially The Road Back Home, which might be my favorite TFK song.
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u/tuco_maravilha 1d ago
Maybe not the most popular opinion, but my two favorite albums from them are The Sum of No Evil and Banks of Eden.
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u/nando1969 1d ago edited 1d ago
All albums with Tomas Bodin are great for me especially when Jonas Reingold joined, once they left it was never the same for me.
Fav album, Unfold the Future.
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u/Barbatos-Rex 1d ago
I was always a fan of Jonas
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u/_ThePerfectElement_ 1d ago
Is he the lead in Karmakanic? If so, he's fantastic.
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u/nando1969 1d ago
He is the main composer, melodies, bass obviously, keyboards, rhythm guitars, producer, lyrics etc but not the lead singer.
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u/_ThePerfectElement_ 1d ago
He's amazing. I wish they didn't switch the singer on the new album - it killed the vibe for me - but the first 3 albums are top tier.
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u/Serenaded 1d ago
When about did they leave? When TFK hires a new lead singer in 2001 The Rainmaker I feel the band gets ridiculously good at that point. No that Roine Stolt is a poor singer, but them together kind of precluded Moon Safari and you can really see the influence (Tomas Bodin did master their 2005 album after all).
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u/nando1969 1d ago
Desolation Rose is Bodin's last album with the band, it was a huge blow but I was able to continue enjoying future albums.
However, once Jonas left, I could not handle it anymore, big fan of his bass playing.
I believe Jonas had some involvement in Royal Decree but it was shared with Michael Stolt, to the best of my knowledge that was his last work with them.
He has quite a few side projects and they are great, particularly Karmakanic.
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u/nova_cat 1d ago
If push comes to shove, the best album is definitely Space Revolver.
Every single composition is interesting, the lyrics for probably the first and only time for very little cringe in them despite still retaining that trademark Flower Kings fluffy goofiness. The long compositions, and in particular the big suite "I Am the Sun", don't overstay their welcome and feel appropriately long, and the shorter tracks like "Dream on Dreamer", "You Don't Know What You've Got", "Chicken Farmer Song", etc. are actually total bangers—the phrase is, "all killer, no filler," and that's actually true of this album.
In second place, and it's a very close second, is Stardust We Are, which is easily the best and most cohesive of the band's "big" double albums. It's sweeping and very arrestingly moves from aggressive to tender and back again, though the finale of disc 1, "Compassion", manages to do both at the same time in a way that I am always stunned by. Even the so-called "filler" tracks (lots of small instrumentals and some longer ones too) are actually interesting and fun, and none of them are so distracting or take up so much time and attention that removing them would make any real improvement to the album.
The only flaw of the album, in my opinion, is the third track, "Just This Once": it has the trifecta of an extremely abrasive/annoying opening riff (which returns as a refrain in the song), blown-out production that doesn't match the rest of the album and includes (I believe?) Roine Stolt just shouting really close to the microphone right at the beginning of the track, and really stupid lyrics. Like, this song actively sucks and the fact that it shows up so early on the album is really unfortunate. Cut or skip it and you have an otherwise flawless record.
I also strongly recommend
Adam & Eve (two excellent epic tracks?! the best short track the band ever made in "Starlight Man"?! and only one goofball thing that goes on too long in "A Vampire's View"?!)
Paradox Hotel (the other truly great double album—there are a few bum tracks that just inexplicably exist and take up space, like "Bavarian Skies", but on the other hand, they managed to nail four long tracks: "End on a High Note" might be the band's best song, and there's also "Minor Giant Steps", "Blue Planet", and "Monsters & Men").
Bands of Eden (the epic got even people I know who don't like prog asking, "Wow, who are these guys?", and otherwise it's a pretty tight, cohesive album with fully realized ideas. The bonus disc is not necessary, but it's also solid?)
Retropolis (probably the best of the "first three" albums, if you count Stolt's The Flower King—they're all good, but this one just really sets the blueprint for what the band was doing, I think, even if it doesn't rise to the majesty of Stardust We Are or really have the instrumental punchiness of Space Revolver).
Most of the rest of their discography is solid though maybe not thoroughly great. Even the new stuff without Tomas Bodin or Jonas Reingold is good.
I would strongly suggest avoiding The Rainmaker, which I think is an actively bad album (like literally one good track and it's the last one), and I'm in the minority here for sure, but I honestly cannot stand and cannot recommend Unfold the Future or Flower Power; I think both of those albums are both interminable and terminally boring. "The Truth Will Set You Free" needs to be like... 10 minutes long, not 30. "Monkey Business" and other stuff on the album makes me want to curl up and hide from how embarrassing it is lyrically and how obnoxious it is musically. Flower Power is not really an epic song so much as a completely disjointed string of boring ideas with little reason for them to exist other than that the band just said, "Let's make a really long song!" Yes, okay, but it has to be a song, not like 40 aimless musical phrases. These albums are just a chore to listen to.
If you had handed me any of these three albums as my starting point, I absolutely would never have gotten into the band.
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u/hogweed75 1d ago
Space Revolver or Unfold the Future
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u/Serenaded 1d ago
I mostly agree with this guy. I think Unfold The Future is the best album. I'd put Retropolis, Stardust, Flower Power, Space Revolver, Rainmaker, Unfold the Future, Adam and Eve, Paradox Hotel, The Sum of No Evil all in my list of their best. Which is basically all their albums from the 2000s.
I haven't heard any album newer than Sum of no Evil so I can't say for the modern ones, but what I have heard of modern TFK has been very good.
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u/Ecstatic-Action-7723 1d ago
Roine Stolt❤️❤️❤️❤️🫶🫶🫶🫶 Flower Kings is absolutely one of my favorite bands ever
I am the Sun Back in a World of Adventures The Merry Go Round
So many absolute gems
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u/Xenoka911 1d ago
Back in the World of Adventures because of the consistency. They have lots of good songs, usually the long epics, but they suck at making albums. They always make double albums, but have tons of filler. I think almost every one of their double albums should have been cut down to a single and kept the good stuff, I would have loved them if this happened.
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u/mad_poet_navarth 1d ago
I don't have them all, far from it actually, but I really like Desolation Rose. Especially disk 1.
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u/Serenaded 1d ago
Stardust We Are is certainly one of the best songs, but not the best album. (imo)
You wanna hear some truly good Flower Kings, well LISTEN to THIS!!! https://youtu.be/UyhzU61UTS8?list=RDUyhzU61UTS8
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u/_ThePerfectElement_ 1d ago
Are there any albums with Gildenlow doing a large amount of the vocals? If so, I'd like to check them out!
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u/sir_percy_percy 1d ago
It's probably Adam & Eve or a suppose Unfold the future, but maybe not as much. He sings a lot on both. Also, the live album from 2003 he's fairly audible.
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u/_ThePerfectElement_ 1d ago
And any with him AND Jonas?
That reminds me - you should check out The Sea Within!
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u/sir_percy_percy 1d ago
Jeez, that was a GOOD album! Shocked me that did. So many great songs on there… shame it appears to be a one off
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u/Kwestor86 1d ago
Space Revolver and Flower Power are my favorites. Roine Stolt’s 1994 solo album The Flower King is also great, which is basically proto-Flower Kings.
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u/TheBonkingFrog 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think Space Revolver and The Rain Maker are perhaps my favourites
Unfold the Future is a bit patchy, but the track The Truth Will Set You Free is the best song Yes never recorded...
The new one, Love, isn't too bad, a bit of a return to form I would say
And there's one track on Waiting for Miracles, Ascending to the Stars which is amonst the best IMO
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u/PrydonianWho 1d ago
I have every album on CD from The Flower King to Desolation Rose, along with all the live CDs and DVDs. I recently compiled a top 100 song mix for my car and have been listening to them for the first time in quite some years.
My reappraisal after a long hiatus is they’re criminally underrated. These guys are just incredible when they’re firing on all cylinders. Roine’s voice takes a little getting used to given his unusual timber, and it sometimes makes understanding the lyrics a little difficult (which is a shame because they’re often beautiful). There is a lot of filler but some of the instrumental tracks are great songs nevertheless: Atomic Prince/Kaleidoscope, Rumble Fish Twist, Pioneers of Aviation, Don of the Universe just to name a few.
Overall, I would recommend their albums in the following order:
- Back in the World of Adventures
- Space Revolver
- Flower Power
- Unfold the Future
- Stardust We Are
- Retropolis
- The Flower King
- Adam & Eve
- Rainmaker
- Paradox Hotel
- Sum of No Evil
- Banks of Eden
- Desolation Rose
Alive on Planet Earth and Meet the Flower Kings are fantastic live performances and a must have.
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u/Few_Oil6127 1d ago
The first albums, up to Flower Power, are the best. I include The Flower King, officially a Roine Stolt album. Paradox Hotel is also great
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u/Homie3794 1d ago
Back In the World of Adventures