The Flower Kings Return to their Roots on LOVE
Swedish proggers release an album that sounds like it came from the band's iconic past.
Thank you for spending part of your day with Michael’s Record Collection! One of my favorite bands since the early 2000s is The Flower Kings, a progressive rock band out of Sweden that has been one of the genre’s standard bearers since the mid-1990s.
Influenced by legendary prog bands like Genesis and Yes, but also by psychedelic rock, fusion, Frank Zappa, and others, TFK is known for epic songs, double albums, and outstanding musicianship. I spoke with band leader Roine Stolt in August of 2023 when The Flower Kings released Look at You Now.
I caught up with him again recently ahead of the release of the band’s 17th album, LOVE.
Let’s get to that story.
Swedish progressive rockers The Flower Kings have carefully crafted their brand of symphonic (and sometimes quite jazzy) music for three decades. Influenced by the sounds of the classic prog bands, jazz, fusion, psychedelic rock, the Beatles, and more, TFK albums provide nourishment to the hungry ears of prog fans worldswide.
The band is back with its 17th studio album, LOVE, which dropped Friday, May 2 from Inside Out Music. The 12 tracks of the album find a confident and introspective band capable not only of building on sounds from its recent album releases, but also revisiting sounds, textures, and atmospheres from the group’s most iconic albums of the past — records that are now considered modern classics in the genre, like Back in the World of Adventures, Retropolis, Stardust We Are, Flower Power, and Space Revolver, which were released in that order between 1995 and 2000.
Echoes of those essential building blocks in the TFK catalog can be heard in the music of LOVE, an album longtime fans of The Flower Kings are likely to…well, you know…love!
Joining band leader/vocalist/guitarist Roine Stolt in the lineup are his brother Michael Stolt (bass, guitars, vocals), Hasse Froberg (guitars, vocals), Mirko DeMaio (drums), and Lalle Larsson (keyboards). Larsson, who played on a couple of tracks on 2023’s Look At You Now album, is involved throughout on the new record.
Roine Stolt said the music on LOVE may have been influenced by revisiting the entire Flower Kings back catalog when Inside Out decided to release all of the band’s albums on vinyl. He said that he noticed during that process of reviewing the older material to see where it could be enhanced for the vinyl release that there was a difference in how the band approached its song craft back in the early days.
“I of course revisited the songs on the old albums and found some appreciation for the way we wrote songs back then,” he said. “The way I was thinking when I wrote those songs, I tried to remember and tried to get back to that feeling, and not just be professional — to sort of find the magic. What was the magic of the early albums? So, that was part of it. And the other is that maybe more like from a musical, philosophical idea of what you should put — the way you use the instruments and how you mix them. It’s not about putting layers and layers of instruments on top of each other to sound huge. Even four instruments can sound huge. So, I tried to go back to school and relearn, how would I do this?”
In taking that approach, Stolt and his merry band of progressive rockers have delivered an album that continues to take The Flower Kings down exciting new paths, but LOVE also feels comforting in a familiar and nostalgiac kind of way.
Despite the familiar feel of the band on this album, there is a wrinkle right at the start of LOVE. Album opener “We Claim the Moon” has sort of a dissonant start — sounding a bit wobbly and out of tune, like when starting a turntable with the needle already on the record.
“I always wanted to do something different, you know. And how can you start a Flower Kings album in a way that we haven't done before, you know, add something new,” Stolt said. “So I took a bit of vocals that is in the song, I moved it to the beginning, and then I used some kind of a pitch shifter to make it sound like it's out of tune and it’s almost played like an old 78 (rotations) per minute (record). What I did was I ran it through a small speaker, and I had a microphone to the small speaker to make it sound even more fractured and old.”
After the unusual beginning, the song quickly kicks into a classic rock beat from DeMaio so steady you’ll find yourself waiting for the cowbell to kick in. There are layers and textures to this straightforward opening track, but like much of the album, it doesn’t get bogged down in soloing and complexity for the sake of being complex. The Flower Kings are letting you know they rock (but in an interesting way that doesn’t quite sound like other bands). Something from the opening song that I can’t quite put my finger on reminds me of “There Is More to This World” from the band’s 1996 Retropolis album.
Fröberg sings most of it, with a small contribution from Roine Stolt, with Fröberg and both of the Stolts all contributing guitar. Lalle Larsson plays piano, Mellotron, organ, and synthesizer. DeMaio and Michael Stolt drive the song forward as a tight rhythm section, and Jannica Lund contributes some backing vocals. There’s a jazzy section near the end, but the song remains upbeat throughout and doesn’t stray too far into improvisational territory.
“The Elder” is the album’s epic showpiece, but as with the last Flower Kings album, the longest song isn’t that long by the band’s considerable standards, running just over 11 minutes. It has flavors of Flower Kings albums of the past. I can imagine some of the sounds from this song being on Flower Power, Retropolis, or Back in the World of Adventures — or possibly even from Paradox Hotel — but seemingly without lifting anything directly from those records. A brief guitar solo about two and a half minutes in sounds like vintage Roine.
About two-thirds of the way through the song things take a dreamy left turn, culminating in a Larsson keyboard solo. Roine and Fröberg share lead vocal duties, and Stolt’s lead guitar work shines in the latter stages of this epic.
“How Can You Leave Us Now!?” was released ahead of the album with an accompanying video. It’s fitting that it was the album’s first pre-release single, because for my money it’s one of the most beautiful ballads the band has ever produced. Layers of acoustic and electric guitar, lovely bass lines, piano, and synthesizers compete for attention. But it’s the chorus that grabs the listener, with the Stolt brothers’ voices mixing with Fröberg’s.
How can you leave us now
We're out on our own somehow
The center won't hold
We all go watching this world grow older
Promise of everlasting darkness is nearing faster
The center won't hold they say
Looking for one more place to stay
Roine also provides one of the most moving short guitar solos in the Flower Kings’ catalog. Larsson’s delicately beautiful piano flourish ends the song before you’re ready to let go of it.
Stolt said the song came to him during a bike ride.
“I think it was last summer, there was a nice day, and I'm sitting here in the studio way too much, you know, and you're thinking, ‘I should get out, the sun is shining.’ I don't even see the the sun from here, from my studio room,” Stolt said. “And I just go out and take my bike and go for a ride somewhere, you know, in the woods, and this song just comes up. And I was lucky because I had my mobile phone with me again — my little tape recorder. So this song just comes up, you know, and I just have to stop my bicycle and start singing in the theme (into the phone).”
The melody and main chorus came to him out of the blue that way, and for the lyrics, Stolt said he was thinking of all the conflicts going on around the world.
“Whatever good forces there are, did they leave now?” he said. “Are they giving up on the stupid people on planet Earth? So, it's a little bit like that, but I think most of all, I'm very happy with the feel of the song. While we were working with the song, I felt strongly that that was one of my favorite songs on the album.”
He’s not alone in that. I rate the song among the best The Flower Kings have recorded.
“World Spinning” is a short instrumental just over two minutes long. Written by Larsson, it’s a nice come down from the epic “The Elder” and the emotional heft of “How Can You Leave Us Now!?” with its playful keyboard runs.
“Burning Both Edges” is caught between various musical worlds. It’s not quite an epic, but it’s also not short. It’s not quite a ballad, but it’s not a rocker. It’s a beautiful, mid-tempo track with perhaps Roine’s best guitar solo on the album in the second half of the song. That plays straight into a sweet Larsson keyboard solo. Fröberg’s vocal performance is strong in this melodic tweener of a song. As with many Flower Kings songs, the lyrical message skews positive, guiding the listener away from darkness and into a better direction.
It's time to do right - Words cannot be wiser
Once you let in the light - Let me walk there beside you
“The Rubble” is an interesting song that to my ears may have been at home on a late-1990s Flower Kings album like Stardust We Are. The guitar theme after the song’s intro sounds of a time between that 1997 masterpiece or the 2000 album Space Revolver.
“Kaiser Razor” is another short instrumental track, but this one Roine wrote, so it’s understandably more guitar-oriented whereas “World Spinning” featured keyboards more prominently. That isn’t to minimize Larsson’s contributions to this song, which are significant, but it’s Roine’s guitar, Michael’s bass, and DeMaio’s drums that serve as the song’s driving force for its run time of just under two and a half minutes.
The all-too-short (at 3:35) “The Phoenix” enters gently with acoustic guitar and Roine’s distinctive lead vocal. It’s one of the high points of the album for me, with more terrific Stolt guitar soloing. Fröberg adds some high harmonies late in the song, just before the pastoral music fades. It didn’t register for me much on first listen, but an attentive spin with headphones on reveals the song’s subtle beauty.
Another shorter song, “The Promise,” follows, with an inspired choice to feature accordion playing by guest Aliaksandr Yasinski and synth strings.
“I think actually I had some fake accordion played on the keyboard here — I mean a sample of the accordion,” Stolt said. “And Aliaksandr is someone I’ve known for maybe 10 years. I think I’ve known him since he was a teenager. He’s actually a star when it comes to playing. I just felt like, ‘Well, we have a guy that can play the accordion, of course we shouldn’t use a sample, we should use the real thing.’”
This song vaguely reminds me of “A King’s Prayer” from the Space Revolver album, despite the two songs not sounding the same. It’s more of a shared vibe, or maybe it’s something I’m just not able to identify. Either way, it’s a great one-two atmospheric punch by the band.
“Love Is” explores the contradictions of love in its lyrics, couched in a song that goes through out some changes. After a traditional Flower Kings opening, there is one of the band’s patented carnival-like flavored sections with a military drumbeat from DeMaio and some midway-style keyboard sounds.
Another of the album’s highlights is Stolt’s David Gilmour-esque guitar solo in “Walls of Shame,” another track that could have come from the band’s 1997-2000 era without lifting anything directly from what has come before. Fröberg and Roine provide vocals (mostly the former, again in fine voice). The Flower Kings are often at their best when these two distinctive voices contrast one another within a single track.
The album closes with a second epic, “Considerations,” penned by Michael Stolt with help on the lyrics by Lund. It opens with a Yes-like intro. Mellotron and guitar present a soaring first minute of the 10-minute run time. It then grows quiet and atmospheric before we hear a new voice. Fröberg sings the chorus bit, changing the song’s mood with a standout vocal performance.
Searching high, searching low
Lady Stardust still got soul
Open up, let her lead the way
Let common sense prevail
Roine plays a scorching guitar solo around the six-minute mark, followed by a vaguely Jordan Rudess-esque keyboard solo (but less flashy and with far fewer notes than one might expects from Dream Theater’s legendary keyboard maestro). The intensity fades near the end and the song exits gently.
Michael’s vocals give the song a bit of a different flavor, but that’s not why The Flower Kings put “Considerations” at the end of the album.
“It just felt like it could be a good ending song, because it's where we're slowing down the very last bit,” Roine said. “We're slowing down the tempo a bit. So, it's kind of heavy, probably the heaviest part of the album.”
LOVE is an album that should appeal to longtime fans of the Flower Kings. To my ears, it sounds much closer in tone and content to the band’s early and middle periods than anything after 2006’s Paradox Hotel, although there are hints of recent albums in the music as well. The album is a nod toward the music that first drew fans into this Swedish outfit’s offerings to the new wave of progressive rock that took hold around the end of the 1990s and carried the genre into a new century. It may be the band’s best album since Paradox Hotel, while being its tightest and most focused since Space Revolver.
Dazzling guitar and keyboard solos, shimmering percussion instruments, and plenty of interesting textural layers and flourishes make this album of well-crafted songs a release that will likely appeal to a lot of progressive rock fans, and it’s sure to end high on my list of the year’s best prog rock albums.
Meanwhile, the band has already taken steps toward the follow-up to LOVE, with multiple compositions that have been written and even some drums and other instruments have been tracked. That means The Flower Kings will soon be back with another new album soon.
“We have already almost half an album that we started working on, so (there will be) definitely one more,” Stolt said with a laugh.
LOVE is available now digitally, on CD, and on vinyl.
Tracklist:
We Claim the Moon (6:34)
The Elder (11:09)
How Can You Leave Us Now!? (5:52)
World Spinning (2:04)
Burning Both Edges (7:43)
The Rubble (4:17)
Kaiser Razor (2:26)
The Phoenix (3:35)
The Promise (3:56)
Love Is (6:02)
Walls Of Shame (6:57)
Considerations (10:14)
For more information on The Flower Kings, follow the band’s Facebook page or visit roinestolt.com.
For my full interview with Roine Stolt, check out the video below or download/stream Episode 152 of the Michael’s Record Collection podcast. In addition to taking me behind the scenes in the writing and recording of LOVE, Roine spoke about how the Look At You Now was received by fans, the European co-headlining tour with Neal Morse & the Resonance to support the new album, some of the things fans who attend those shows can expect, and much more.
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