Customer Reviews

Adam & Eve

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's tough being a progressive rock band. You find a style, stick with it, and the fans begin complaining that you're becoming stale - "try doing something different," they whine. So, you experiment a little on your next album, and lo and behold, the fans complain "What happened to the trademark sound? Why can't they make an album like the ones they did before?"

Well, little ever changes, and even before the release of Adam and Eve, the eighth studio release from The Flower Kings, the so-called fans were already griping it was "more of the same." Just a year ago many were calling the previous studio album, "Unfold The Future," too experimental for it's heavy jazz fusion influences. What do they want?

I approached this album expecting a lot: great melodies, killer musicianship, powerful uplifting lyrics - in short, all of the things I expect from The Flower Kings. On every count, I was rewarded and then some. Roine Stolt's beautiful sense of melody is right in place, the virtuoso playing of Zoltan Csorsz and Jonas Reingold (the best rhythm section in rock today) continued to astound, and the lyrics were more articulate and poignant than even before.

Does it sound like most other Flower Kings albums? Of course. The Flower Kings have developed a superior product, a unique and inspiring sound that is at once majestic and compelling, and they continue to deliver, after 10 years of recording, at the same high level that they always have.

The Flower Kings deliver another very good album. It seems to be more stripped down than their previous album, Unfold the Future, a slightly more varied album that showed a jazzier side and better singing than several other Flower King albums, note better doesn't mean prior albums were poorly sung; they weren't. In fact, the only thing that I missed on Unfold the Future was Roine's lead vocals. He seems to be happy to be the composer, guitarist and one of three lead vocalists these days.

Adam and Eve is a somewhat Jazzy, slightly more improvised or at least, more group oriented grooved sounding, particularly on guitar solos. The rhythm section brings a more sophisticated backing that was missing from albums prior to "Unfold the Future"

The Kings have a formula. So does rock music, for that matter symphonic music has some of the most rigid formulas, and as usual there are moments of symphonic progressive rock on this album. In some ways it's more interesting as it's not quite as bombastic as some other FK releases which is a good thing as well. Change and perfecting of a band's sound are two very different things to attempt yet that's what Adam and Eve sounds like on the long tracks.

As new personnel are added the possibility of TFK are massive and in this respect some might have hoped for more than this somewhat cautious CD. Still, songs like "Love Supreme" proove the band's still got their chops and sound down. Where the over dramatic "Vampires View" may be a bit campy at times it is also wonderfully moody and showing the paring down that is heard throughout Adam and Eve. TFK go a bit more neo than prog and a bit more metal than prior but it's the jazzy rhythm section that anchors solos that sometimes seemed out of place on prior TFK albums.

Perhaps the band will stick together, not do 101 side projects and put out a release that is indicative of their stellar capabilities, thus the 4 star review.

Of all of the new prog rock bands that have hit the scene over the last 15 years, The Flower Kings are one of the few that are actually progressive. Their influences (Genesis, Frank Zappa, Yes, Pink Floyd, etc.) are detectable at times, but they have managed to carve out their own sound without sounding derivative.

"Adam and Eve," the band's 8th studio album, is another tremendous effort, although reviews from fans have been rather mixed. I attribute this to expectations many have as a result of their tremendous back catalog. If this were their debut record, I believe most would gush all over it, but being their 8th, it is inevitable to compare it to their past masterworks like "Flower Power," "Stardust We Are" and "Unfold the Future," all of which are adored by most of the band's fanbase.

For my money, this is probably one of my three least favorite TFK studio albums, but that doesn't prevent it from being a great album. "Timelines," "Driver's Seat," and "Love Supreme" show off the extraordinary songwriting talents of band leader Roine Stolt. There is not a weak track on this record. And, as is the case with every TFK record, it flows seamlessly.

This isn't the first record I would recommend to someone wanting to get into this band, but for the already-converted, it is a must-have.

It is difficult for me to be objective about the Flower Kings. I just love their music. They rekindled my appreciation for 70's progressive music and introduced me to a whole new world of modern prog.

Roine Stolt has to be among the hardest working musicians around. The amount of truly original and quality music he has written and recorded with FK over the last 10 years is amazing, not to mention his contributions to Transatlantic and The Tangent. The guy's talent and energy are endless.

All of the things that initially attracted me to the band's music are present in this recording - Roine's majestic guitar work, strong melodies, positive lyrics and excellent musicianship all around.

I particularly enjoy the noticeable use of acoustic guitar. I might be wrong, but it seems more prevalent in this recording than in previous ones.

I think Hasse Froberg's vocals are also very good here. I used to think he was a weak vocalist. Again, it may just be me, but I think he has gotten stronger over the years. He is right on target and just fantastic on Starlight Man.

As time has passed, I have gained respect for Tomas Bodin's keyboard work. Being a guitar freak, I have not been too motivated to invest in his solo work, but I will definitely be doing so. His piano on Days Gone By is gorgeous. To me, I see the relationship between Roine and Tomas being similar to Ian Anderson/Martin Barre and Pat Metheny/Lyle Mays. It is difficult to imagine one without the other.

Also, a word about Daniel Gildenlow. His band, Pain of Salvation, is a little too metal for my tastes. I wondered why Roine invited his participation on Unfold the Future and I thought his influence was nearly nonexistent in FK's DVD "Meet the Flower Kings". But, I gotta say that his dramatic vocals in A Vampire's View are awesome. He definitely has a beautiful and powerful voice. (I might have to give PoS another try.)

Standout tracks include the two epic pieces Love Supreme and Drivers Seat, plus A Vampire's View. I also think Starlight Man might well be the best short song Roine has ever written. Talk about a hook! The song has it all. Timelines is also good.

Gotta say something about the cover art. I had seen a preview of it before the CD was released and was disappointed and a little put off by it. The depiction of Adam as a Darwin-like half-man, half-beast was offensive to me. However, I read some comments by Roine on FK's website. He explained that the references to Adam and Eve in this recording are symbolic of man and woman in general and have nothing to do with the Biblical Adam and Eve.

Anyway, this is a terrific recording and actually not a bad place to start if you are interested in meeting The Flower Kings.

Every now and then I said to myself, "I've got to write an Amazon review for this thing." Well, after a year of listening to this album, I am convinced it is the best Flower Kings album so far, and I wanted to get this review in before I experience Paradox Hotel.

Adam & Eve is the most modern, progressive, and best sonically recorded of their collection. I find myself coming back to check this album out more than the others. First, I was amazed by Driver's Seat as a thoroughly classic epic. A year later, Love Supreme strikes me as a another masterpiece. Superb instrumental passages that would make Yes proud (or jealous?). Even Vampire's View is unique enough to warrant a revisitation. Cosmic Circus / Babylon has to be mentioned as well.

Adam & Eve is a musical voyage into the big questions. That might sound dopey, but consider the song Adam & Eve, where Adams and Eves intertwine until the end of time, an interesting twist of view on relationships, or Timelines, "in one hand a rattle, the other, a hammer". From birth to death time goes quickly. Lots of dealing with duality. Strangely, this album reminds me of Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe, or is it the other way around?

Sonically, Adam & Eve is joy to experience. The production values are outstanding. Lots and lots to hear within the well of sounds and textures, the tapestry of this album. The better your system is, the more you will get out of it. You can hear the earnestness and fun of the band, delivering to us mad chops and songs that make you want to get up and cheer at the end of them.

Thanks to the Flower Kings, we have something to cheer for. Unlike a lot of albums these days, this one MEANS something.

"Just as the river made a hole inside the mountain,
You throw your soul into the heart of the great nothing..."

If I'm not mistaken, Adam & Eve is The Flower Kings' eighth studio release excluding their live albums. For many years this band has worked on quality art rock meets prog meets symphonic music and they've done a great job. Today they are among the best bands in this genre, without question. I'm not going to compare this release with their back catalog since Adam & Eve is a rather different entity in its own right. It clearly refuses to walk on the same path of its predecessors and has a completely different vibe to it.

This is a very varied album to begin with. Aside from the 20-minute epics such as "Love Supreme" and "Driver's Seat", there are also more compact but darker tunes sung by new member Daniel Gildenlow of Pain of Salvation fame, two beautiful instrumentals and even two radio-friendly compositions within the 3-minute mark. In total, this is over 78 minutes of quality prog music played and sung by tremendously talented musicians. This recording will not require many listens to be understood, however you will want to hear it several times as it grows on you with each listen. The more trained a listener is the better one can comprehend the sound structures of prog rock and jazz music as Roine Stolt himself says.

It is difficult to pick any favourites but I particularly lean on the two tracks delivered by Daniel Gildenlow who has been a full-time member since Unfold the Future. "A Vampire's View" is the darkest and most brooding TFK song I've heard. Daniel sings in a low register and his dark vocals are surrounded by lucid layers of atmosphere. The title track is another magnificent tune in terms of songcraft. It's powerful, heavy and eerily beautiful. Structure-wise this could be my favourite song especially because of Daniel's evil vocals. He sure has breathed new air into the Flower Kings and brought a new dimension to their music.

Of course it's not just Daniel Gildenlow what makes this so special. Keyboardist Tomas Bodin displays his fragile songwriting ability on the "Days Gone By" instrumental. The 70's vibe is successfully achieved thanks to his usage of analog keys and Keith Emerson-like style. The rhythm section of the band relies heavily on jazz during some moments and Jonas Reingold's influence in the main melody of "Driver's Seat" is awesome. I also think this song has the best opening riff on the album; it's loaded with tons of catchy melodies and terrific drumming by Zoltan Csorsz. "Time Lines" is an amalgam of jazz, art rock and a terrific blues solo! Another great tune indeed. The longer songs sound very simplistic at face value but the way main songwriter Roine Stolt developed and enriched them is fascinating. He flirts with an abundance of different ideas and backs them up with the virtuosity of his bandmates creating timeless songs. I continue to hold the opinion that if The Flower Kings were a band of the 70's, there would plenty of prog fans who'd dig them more than they might enjoy bands like Yes and Genesis.

Overall, this is a very good FK release, but all of their releases have been good. So, what are the good and bad points? Love Supreme is simply an amazing FKs song: sweeping, grandiose, moving, and thoroughly enjoyable. Other standout tracks include 'Driver's Seat' and 'Timeline'. 'Starlight Man' is also very FKish and reminds me of 'Chicken Farmer' or 'Stupid Girl.' These songs alone make this a worthwhile CD and worthy of the 4 stars.

Now, the duds. 'Adam and Eve' is just not a good song....its hard to listen to and not very melodic. The lyrics are pretty bad. The vampire song, no matter how many times I listen to it, just doesn't work. The bridge/chorus is actually good, but I can't get past the brooding/talking versus.

I can't complain too much about a band that tries new and different things in their music. The flower Kings remain one of the best bands out there and put out better and more music than 98% of the other stuff on Amazon.

I will try to keep this brief. This disk seems to be all over the map trying different formulas primarily with vocal experimentation. With the exception of "Love Supreme", it is rather disjointed and lacks cohesion to my ears.

"Love Supreme" is one of TFK's best compositions almost to the level of "Stardust We Are". The rest of the disk is rather lackluster especially the rather wretched "A Vampire's View" (which is really over-the-top and out of place on this disk).

"Adam & Eve" has some really horrible vocals (beginning and ending) but redeems itself, to some degree, with some nice Zappa-like guitar and some interesting keys and bass soloing midway through the dreck.

The trend of TFK's in recent years is to cram as many words into their songs as possible and limit the exquisite guitar soloing of Roine Stolt and the impressive keyboards of Tomas Bodin which I believe is a huge mistake. "Babylon", which is way too short, is the only instrumental which has some fantastic Bodin\Stolt interplay which gives me goosebumps...we need more of this!

I would rather hear long instrumental passages than warbling esoteric, over dramatic, fractured lyrics. I realize TFKs positive, uplifting message is very much needed in this war stricken, greedy world we all live in but my personal preference is the music over lyrical content. Why this band, which membership has some real stellar musicians, waste so much time on unflattering vocals is beyond me.

"Timelines" has some really nice guitar moments but Roine's vocals (whose voice I can stand the most) constantly interrupts the flow of the song...making this one inconsistent and abrupt.

"Driver's Seat", like "Love Supreme", has some very good melodic content. A good composition, somewhat fractured at times, with excellent musicianship. Some more Zappa-like influence here (Roine you can make your guitar sing). Main gripe again is the vocals.

"The Blade of Cain" begins with some really, really good guitar riffs and keyboard interplay but then dwindles down to some repetitive, very low key, filler w/ spacey, repeating lyrics from "Love Supreme"...disappointing conclusion.

So, I would have to say that "Driver's Seat" is runner-up to "Love Supreme" in the best song category ("Babylon", unfortunately, is way too short to consider here). Since these are the two longest cuts, around 38 minutes or so, this disk is still of good value. Flower King fans should pick this one up.

For the newly initiated, start with "Retropolis", "Stardust We Are", or, maybe even "Space Revolver" (with the bonus disk if you can find it). For live material "Alive on Planet Earth" is very good. For a broad overview, "Meet The Flower Kings" w/ bonus DVD is an oustanding value.

I wish I could write a more positive review of "Adam & Eve" but after so many spins, I still cannot get into this as with previous releases (even "Rainmaker" ranks above this one, IMHO). Maybe it is time for Roine to do another solo like his utterly fantastic "Hydrophonia" (wow, this is great!) And, it is too bad that Roine didn't name this disk "Love Supreme"...it is the standout track.

Well, it appears I rambled on longer than I wanted...kind-of like the over bearing voices on this CD.

For fans of classic prog, the whole neo-prog scene can be a bit dodgy. I won't name names, but a whole lot of neo-proggers just copy the 70's stuff, seemingly oblivious to the actual meaning of the word "Progressive." A precious few bands like Porcupine Tree get it right by being themselves, influences and all, but when I can't find any more obscure Italian prog albums or whatnot, I usually enjoy post-rock like Sigur Ros and Mogwai more than the neo's.

The prolific Swedish band The Flower Kings spend about half their time being pretty original and the other half may ape the old-time prog bands a bit but they do it better than any other neo-prog band I've heard. Light years ahead of most in fact. I'm not even sure it's fair to call the Flower Kings neo-prog anyway since Roine Stolt and Jonas Reingold trace their roots back to genuine 70's proggers Kaipa.

On Adam & Eve, the Flower Kings offer up a variety ranging from two 20-minute epics, to shorter atmospheric stuff, to radio-friendly songs. All of it is generally well done, and in the case of "Drivers Seat" it's downright awesome. These guys manage to go from the chorus of "Starlight Man" that is straight out of Yes (or maybe Starcastle to be precise,) to "A Vampire's View," which doesn't sound at all like anyone else.

There's some weak lyrics here and there, most glaringly on the title track, but all is forgiven when Stolt breaks into that instant-classic guitar riff on "Driver's Seat," or that terrific chorus on "Starlight Man" that's better than anything Yes is doing this decade.

I'm giving this 4 stars because it's very well done, in that the band clearly still cares about what goes into their music, despite their ever-growing discography. The packaging is nice, the production outstanding, the performances top-notch. And that main riff on "Driver's Seat" just makes this old proghead break into a smile!

1 star deduction for the spotty lyrics, occasional long-windedness even for a prog band and the fact that I listen to the songs that sound like the old proggers more than their more original sounding songs (like "A Vampire's View or "Adam & Eve"), which surprises me but tells me how good they really are at.

I can understand the band's choice for the cover. The painting illustrates the "beauty and the beastly," the rough and smooth, it accurately describes the combination of songs on this record. A lot of gentle and sweet, but with just enough rough edges... (a perfect blend, in my opinion) sooooo....

This record has everything I love in it! The guitar things! The symphonic things! The sing-along things! The piano things! The drum things ... everything! People who are into avant-prog are going to probably dislike this record because of its catchy retro feel. This CD is not as adventurous or jazzy as Unfold The Future, but gives kudos to the much shorter and overlooked songs of the past. Ghost of The Red Cloud and Kite come to mind. This record is a great introduction to the Flower Kings! By the second spin I was completely hooked! Bits and pieces stuck in my mind and quickly became familiar friends!

Lyrically, I think Roine Stolt shines on this CD. His observations are very poignant and deeply affecting.

Songs...

Love Supreme... Supreme!!!! Five songs in one! An instant classic reminiscent of the songs on Retropolis' and Stardust. This is an epic adventure on the lines of The Truth will Set You Free and There's More to this World, but, of course, it is completely new and different. Great guitar playing by Roine! This song also has a nice little sing-along quality to it. There is even a little "Karmakanic" vocalizing and a brief nod to Transatlantic -- Simply gorgeous! Five Stars! Love Supreme, for sure : )

Cosmic Circus: A sweet song sung by Hasse Froberg about living in a confusing world. Excellent drumming by Zoltan Csorz who rumbles off a groove like Ringo back in the day. Very Beatle-lish. 3 minutes of wonderful! (BTW, This record is chock full of these little gems!!!)

Babylon: Tomas Bodin shines as he plays a sweet synth melody, joined by Roine on guitar. Zoltan keeps a groove with his jazzy drumming. A very sweet 2:41! Another gem!!

A Vampire's View: Daniel Gildenlow (of Pain of Salvation) is simply amazing! He sings like a theatrical performer in a play! I can see this song come to life as I picture a tortured soul's struggle with his demons. One of my favorites on the record!

Days Gone By: Here is a classic piano piece by Tomas, which clocks in at a short and sweet at 1:10. Not a single wasted note! Another little gem!

Adam & Eve: This little modern tale, about a couple who struggle with love and lust, is a great rocker!!!!

Starlight man: Another sweet little sing along on the lines of Buffalo Man and Chicken Farmer -- something you'll find yourself humming while you wait for a train or shop for groceries. Another little gem created especially for us, the fans! Simply sweet!

Timelines: A heavy rocker that starts out more like Transatlantic than Flower Kings, but then Roine comes in with his acoustic guitar and changes all that : ) it becomes a bluesy-prog song about a race against time, how you just can't win, so just go with the flow and enjoy life while you can.

Driver's Seat: An epic song about taking control of your life. Symphonic and sweeping. Great memorable themes reminiscent of The first Roine Stolt Flower King's record. Daniel, Hasse and Roine dramatize the lyrics and make them sizzle and burn! Zoltan shines with a little jazzy drumming, a nod to the improvisations of Unfold the Future. This song even gets to rock out like a classic Zep tune half way through with Hasse taking the lead! But this song PROGS!!! Very Flower Kings!!!!

The Blade Of Cain: A symphonic combination of all that came before, a beautiful end to a beautiful record!!! They completed the Big Puzzle with this one! Five big stars! *****

Perhaps my only criticism is that Jonas Reingold saved his best bass playing for Karmakanic's Wheel Of Life!!!