Flower Power (2CD)

The Flower Kings | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 16, 1999)
• Original Release Date: November 16, 1999
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Inside Out U.S.
• ASIN: B00003000F
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #290,023 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Garden of Dreams

2. Garden of Dreams

3. Garden of Dreams

4. Garden of Dreams

5. Garden of Dreams

6. Garden of Dreams

7. Garden of Dreams

8. Garden of Dreams

9. Garden of Dreams

10. Garden of Dreams

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Deaf, Numb & Blind

2. Stupid Girl

3. Corruption

4. Power of Kindness

5. Psycedelic Postcard

6. Hudson River Sirens Call 1998

7. Magic Pie

8. Painter

9. Calling Home

10. Afterlife

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Abso-Fraggin-Loutly AMAZING!, November 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Flower Power (2CD) (Audio CD)

OK...in brief:

I first got turned on to this band a year ago when I read something over the Net extolling their virtues. I picked up "Prog Fest 97" and wa blown away by their talent. I picked up "Scanning The Greenhouse" to see what they were really like...and was blown away.

For months, I've tried to get this CD or ANY other FK CD at ANY website. I called store after store, only to be rebuffed. These guys are an *obsession*...they are THAT GOOD!

This is a 2 CD set...their "lead off" tune is 56 mins long...and that's just Disc 1! My God, this whole album is amazing...true Prog Rock in the spirit of the genre without sounding like a clone of some Prog Band...these guys have chops and talent.

If you're looking for Prog comparisons to Howe, Wakeman, Emerson et al, you're not going to get them from me. These guys just..."ARE".

If you like Prog, or just awesome music...buy this CD...it is simply a masterpiece.

I'd write more, but I'm speechless afterlistening to this CD!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars FlowerPower saved me, January 29, 2000

By 

Jeff Hodges (Denton, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Flower Power (2CD) (Audio CD)

This is the first Flower Kings album I bought, and I must say that I unconditionally love the Flower Kings on the basis of this, thier fourth studio recording. To put it even more strongly, I would like to think I understand the Flower Kings. They remind me of all the bands I love without copying any of them. Sometimes they remind me of classic 70's King Crimson with John Wetton. Sometimes I hear Yes, or Genesis. Every now and then, Roine Stoltz even dips into Frank Zappa's vocabulary for guitar work (and believe me, I know the implications of that statement - but listen to Astral Dog and prove me wrong!). Innumerable reviewers cite these artists when they talk about "prog-rock, " and understandably so. These artists were pioneers in the experimental pop/prog-rock genre.

However, regardless of influences, the Flower Kings have a unique and defining sound. They copy none of those bands, yet at any given time they sound like all of them simultaneously.

Ultimately,though, any band that can effectively write a long form song to the duration of an hour ("The Garden of Dreams") and actually make it work necessarily demands respect. Upon first listening, this composition seems like a collection of unfinished songs, but it is, upon subsequent listenings, a carefully and deliberately woven tapestry written around four or five deceptively simple musical themes (the most important and recurring of which is recognizable at 9 notes!).

Although it seems The Garden of Dreams is the most long-term rewarding listen, the most accessible listening lies hidden on the second disc. Deaf, Numb and Blind is both energetic and ingenious, especially in its use of complex meter and song form. There are moments that exemplify psychedelia (Magic Pie) and moments of sublime serenity (The Power of Kindness). Harmonies on Painter and Psychedelic Postcard rival the thickest and most overproduced harmonies that 90125 has to offer. In fact, the lowest point on the entire 2 disc set is the track Stupid Girl, which sounds like Simple Minds or David Bowie on a cloudy day (understand: that is meant to be complimentary).

From reading online reviews, I understand that "Stardust We Are" and " Back in the World of Adventures" are even stronger discs than "FlowerPower". I approach this idea with a high level of anticipation. In fact, I am saving my fifth stars for this possibility.

In itself, FlowerPower singlehadedly re-ignited my love for experimental pop music. After Marillion's Clutching at Straws, I fully believed that all the best "prog-rock" had been written. The Flower Kings have thankfully proven me wrong, and I plan on spreading the word as far and as as wide as I can, much to the chagrin of ignorant US record company reps and radio programmers.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Prog-Rock Central, September 10, 2000

By 

Michael Topper (Pacific Palisades, California United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flower Power (2CD) (Audio CD)

There's one thing The Flower Kings can't be accused of, and that's brevity. "Flower Power" runs over 140 minutes in length--that's even longer than The Smashing Pumpkins' "Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness", and would have translated into a *quadruple* album of all-new material had it been released in the days of vinyl! As if that weren't enough, the album's centerpiece is the multi-part prog epic "Garden Of Dreams", which runs exactly one hour in length and thus would also qualify as the longest song in rock history. So is any of this any good? The answer is mostly yes--and sometimes no. The Flower Kings are all over the map on "Flower Power", offering so many different styles that you're bound to be annoyed by some of them eventually. While it's impressive that they can play virtually anything, they share a trait common to most prog acts and that's that they just don't seem to know when enough is enough (indeed, I would say they are

proud of that fact, as are most 90s prog revivalists). The group is at its best when it plays hardcore symphonic prog reminiscent of Genesis, Yes, and Gentle Giant, with the added bonus of having access to 90s technology. In these moments the group sound like what prog fans have been dreaming of for years now: a group that is reminiscent of the best 70s prog acts without sounded diluted or derivative, while at the same time updating the sound for the new millenium. The singer sounds at times like David Bowie, at other times like John Wetton, which is to say that he's got an appealing and passionate voice. With all of these elements in tow, the group manage to sound both complex and melodic, virtuostic and accessible at the same time. Unfortunately, not everything they choose to play comes off like this--much of disc two veers toward the distressing waters of neo-prog, and there are far too many attempts to mimic the soaring guitar solos of Hackett in "Firth Of Fifth" or "Spectral Mornings". Once or twice and it would sound special--however, the group tends to play this style to tedium; it even ruins the end of the otherwise excellent-up-to-that-point "Garden Of Dreams". To put it succinctly, the band needs an editor. One fifty-minute distillation of the best ideas here would have produced the greatest prog album in two decades; the album is still highly recommended nonetheless, but if you're not a died-in-the-wool prog fan used to this sort of thing (and even if you are, like I am) be forewarned.