The Flower Kings, Chapter 1: Back In The World Of Adventures

1) Back In The World Of Adventures (1995)

Prepare to fly!

Back In The World Of Adventures is considered to be the first album by The Flower Kings, which is technically true, but in many ways, this album feels like the second part of a duology with The Flower King. That's why we're “back”. The crowned figure from the cover art returns, underlining the continuity between the two. Also, Back feels much more like a “second effort” after the unexpected succes of the true debut.

The relationship of these two albums is similar to that of A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering, Seasons End and Holidays in Eden, English Electric Part 1 and Part 2. The first album is a much more uniform, coherent affair that maybe plays things a little safe, while the second one is more adventurous (sorry) and therefore has higher highs and lower lows, but is also less consistent than the first.

Back In The World Of Adventures is, indeed, an adventurous album on which TFK's sound is broadened to incorporate new elements. The rocking bits rock harder, the instumental craziness is crazier, there's more room for high drama in the lyrics and, significantly, more jazz. The track names promise adventure, too. We will ride a train to nowhere over oblivion road, there's a hero as well as a Judas, a trek though a temple full of snakes and a big puzzle to be solved.

The Flower Kings have completed their first shows, and they're a proper band now. There's a keyboard player and a bassist. Tomas Bodin in particular adds a lot to the sound: he plays in a much broader palette of sounds than Dexter Frank jr. (A.K.A Roine) and gets a lot more creative sounds and samples in. He doesn't contribute any music of his own to this album, but that will change. As for the bass: it's a public secret that Michael Stolt is barely featured on any of the albums he's supposedly on - nine times out of ten, it's Don Azzaro (also Roine) himself playing the bass still. The odd thing about this one is that it's the only album from which second singer Hasse Fröberg is completely absent. He did sing a few lines on “The Flower King” as a guest, but didn't join the band right away (he'll be back to stay from “Retropolis” onward).

Instead, then, let us take this opportunity to sing praises of Roine Stolt the singer. He may not be considered one of the greatest singers in the prog scene, but I really do like his voice quite a bit. There's a lot of character to it, and a lot of versatility. He can project a theatrical anger like in “Go West Judas”, as well as a subdued emotionality like in “Train to Nowhere”. He is absolutely the right man to sing these songs.

The opener – not-quite-title-song “World of Adventures” - is one of those quintessential Flower Kings songs, one with verses and choruses as well as a kaleidoscopic richness of themes in the instrumental sections. That sounds like chaos but it really isn't; everything hangs together quite beautifully. It has a decent rock edge to it, too. It's not just mr. Guitar stealing the show, either; the addition of a real keyboards specialist in Tomas Bodin means that the keyboards have been emancipated into a full-on solo instrument as well. The celtic theme that forms the climax is just killer. The song is, again, unpaologetically retro: the “children of the Woodstock Nation” line tells you exactly where we are. A great opener as always.

To be fair, many children were born nine months after this event.

“Atomic Prince / Kaleidoscope” always takes me by suprise. It's one of those instrumentals with such a strong, instantly memorable ear worm of a theme that it surprises me it's not way more famous than it is – it only got a handful of live outings. Strangely, it breaks down halfway through and moves into a completely unrelated bit of Spanish guitar by the end – a testament to Roine's free-form, stream-of-conciousness approach to songwriting. Allegedly, when he got around to making an album called Kaleidoscope with Transatlantic in 2014, Roine had forgotten that he himself already had a song called “Kaleidoscope” in his back catalog!

“Go West Judas” is another one of the album's heavy hitters, a great rocker with those wonderful, theatrical Roine vocals I talked about. It has real bite in both the riff, the lyrics and the delivery. Of course, when things get biblical, church organs abound.

Then, a short ballad that is quite beautiful: “Train to Nowhere”. It's a pop song at its core. In a parallel universe, this might, again, have been a famous song, but on an album like this, it's almost too easy to overlook. Roine's mind is just so full of ideas that a hit-worthy melody like this becomes just another little song. I love it. The guitars are pleasantly dramatic.

That's four great tracks done, but the album runs into the first signs of trouble as “Train to Nowhere” segues into “Oblivion Road”, a completely directionless bit of jazzy jamming. This is the first time The Flower Kings do this, but certainly not the last. I suppose as the players became accustomed to each other, jams like this were beoming more common. Good for them, but I could absolutely do without this on the albums. Come to think of it, I could do without it during live performances too. It kills the momentum in either case.

“Theme For A Hero” is another beautiful instrumental track with a memorable theme. It feels more like a Stolt solo track than a band track - I wonder what this would sound like if they had recorded it live in the studio like they did with their later albums. It's maybe two or three minutes too long - this album's equivalent of "The Pilgrims Inn".

“Temple of the Snakes” is a short, atmospheric instrumental interlude of the sort that would become a speciality for Tomas Bodin, although this one was written by Roine. Not too much to say about this one. It's short.

At last, “My Cosmic Lover” injects some energy back into the proceedings. It's a very different kind of Flower Kings song: A very funky, bass and percussion driven song with a pop structure and a simple chorus, while Ulf Wallander's sax dances around the melody. It has such a weird, spaced-out vibe, especially with the sitars. I don't think anyone has used the word “cosmic” in a song since the Beatles broke up. It has a great drive to it and gives the album some much-needed momentum.

Who needs drugs when you've got prog?

This momentum is immediately deflated by “The Wonder Wheel”, yet another quiet, atmospheric instrumental, and a four-minute one at that. Fortunately, this one does seem to hit some kind of climax at the end, even though it doesn't amount to much. It mostly functions as an introduction to the final big piece of music.

Which is called “Big Puzzle”, and I have a confession for you. I didn't think much of it when I first heard it. It's length – around thirteen minutes – is not overly huge by Flower Kings standards (although during live performances, the band could certainly stretch it out to nearly twenty minutes), and it didn't initially grab me like others did. Only recently did I get to know it better, and now it's my favourite song on the album by far! It starts off like a moving ballad, but quicky moves into an extremely enjoyable instrumental section in 7/8 that is a veritable feast of great themes and melodies, with a Santana-like section as its highlight. The following vocal part is very strong too, but the best is kept for last as Roine plays a very emotional guitar solo that reaches crescendo into a reprise of the first theme. Great lyrics here, too. Powerful stuff.

What kept me from liking it all those years? Bear with me here… it probably has to do with the way Roine is singing it. I praised his voice earlier but he doesn't really do it for me on this track. He's just putting a bit too much melisma in there, like he's trying to be Mariah Carey or something. Oh well. It's just a petty gripe. I'm over it now.

Totally over it.

Like I said before, Back In The World Of Adventures doesn't have as much consistency compared to its predecessor. It starts off great, then gets a bit of a lull with all those instrumentals, then the ending is great once again. That makes it a less cohesive and less accessible album overall, even though some of the individual songs are much better than anything found on The Flower King. My advice would be to play that album before playing this one, as The Flower King works a lot better as a debut album. What Back offers, apart from a handful of fabulous songs, is a vista over the horizon, an early, tantalizing indicator of just what The Flower Kings are capable of. It's an uneven album with some very good songs. If you're looking for an album that has both consistency and a continuous high quality, join me next time as we journey into Retropolis.

RATING: Four USB sticks out of Yoda Wearing A Top Hat

CHURCH ORGAN COUNT: In the finale to “Go West Judas”.

BETTER 50 MINUTE VERSION:
World of Adventures
Atomic Prince / Kaleidoscope
Go West Judas
Train to Nowhere
My Cosmic Lover
Big Puzzle

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