Search - The Flower Kings :: Adam & Eve

FK has to lose a star for each of their terrible vocalists a

Nash | 06/29/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Another year goes by and another Flower Kings album is in the can. I honestly didn't actually sit and listen to the entire album until just recently, when I got a batch e-mail announcing that (huge surprise!!) FK is recording another double album......(exacerbated sigh)...



Anyway, this album must certainly be one of their finest studio productions to date, easily on par with the sounds of Unfold the Future and Rainmaker. Only problem is that the production might be the only thing I like on this album. I'll admit that the music seems to maintain the same level of maturity that it's carried from disc to disc. Stolt and co. are obviously great players who have a real gift for arranging parts with one another. The only problem with that kind of steadiness is that it jades the listener after albums and albums of samish stuff. When Roine and Jonas went to work with Tangent and Kaipa around the time of this album, it was a huge relief to be free of Roine's cliche chord progressions and the endless cavalcade of 7/4 parts and mid-tempo Yes-ish parts.



The biggest problem with the Flower Kings is firstly the overall aesthetic and secondly the vocalists who act as mouthpieces for that horrible aesthetic. The Flower Kings tired message that combines peace, love, circus imagery, ending of all evil, fantasy creatures, pleasuredomes, bad Trapper-Keeper artwork and the most childish view of the cosmos possible has GOT TO END!!! It's barely fathomable that anyone can take this seriously, especially people who lived through the best years of Yes and Genesis. Let's be real, those bands created this kind of music, and while their recent years have not been as flattering, their golden years in the mid-1970s saw the advent of some radical musical ideas and fresh lyrical concepts. The Flower Kings are exquisite players who really know how to use the studio as an instrument, but they haven't got half a clue about how to deliver an artistic messages. It's artifically-flavored and artificial-sweetened prog rock for people who can't let go of something they think they've lost. The lyrics are filled with some of the most barf-worthy lines about "the Master's hand" and Roine singing about how he's "afraid he'll love them all [people he encounters]." What does that crap even mean! The Daniel Gildenrow performance where he plays a fictional vampire who's "Not under a tombstone / no worms are lickin' my bones" is downright repellant. I don't know or care about any of his work with Pain of Salvation, but this is just GARBAGE!!! On top of his ludicrous performance and Roine's steadily dull Ian Anderson drone, we still have to suffer Hasse's horribly over-the-top Michael Bolton-esque vocals, which actually sound just like the singing guy on the Budweiser "real men of genius" commercials. Only problem with that comparison is that the Bud commercials are meant as a joke, whereas Roine and Co. are convinced that the Steve Perry school of vocalization is cool and relevant. Hasse is a capable vocalist no doubt, but unlike a rangy singer like Freddie Mercury, he's got no swagger or character whatsoever. Flower Kings should fire him and use the guy who's been singing on the Kaipa records. Hasse would probably do better singing at weddings for the rest of his days.



Pros of this repugnant album:

Musicianship (especially Roine, Tomas, and Jonas ability to mesh together, and the individual talents they bring to the table)

Sound quality (never really an issue with them)

Vocal harmonies (when none of them stand out it actually works)



Cons:

Singing

Song ideas (Roine's yokel tune at the end of track 1 almost made me run screaming from the house. The Vampire song made me turn the volume down for fear of embarassment in front of the neighbors).

Lyrics

Artwork (are you kidding me, I felt like I got a copy of Warcraft in the mail)"