After Paradox Hotel, Roine felt the time was right to release a new compilation album. There already was one, of course, but the intent was quite different this time around. This would be a compilation consisting almost exclusively of short, accessible, snappy, “normal” songs. The songs you could play at work, to your girlfriend, or to your family, without confusing the heck out of everybody. The album was not so much for attracting new fans as it was for helping existing fans introduce this band to their normal friends without making them look too crazy...
Another thing this double album does is put some lesser-known material in the spotlight. If Scanning The Greenhouse was a collection of well-loved long form prog favourites, this is the opposite: a collection of shorter songs – mostly in the four- to six minute range – that might have been overshadowed by said favourites. In passing, it reminds us all just how good this band is at making – for lack of a better term – "pop" songs.
In theory, making and releasing a compilation album takes zero effort. Just take some old songs, maybe do some basic sound editing to make them all equally loud and call it a day. But that isn't what was done here: Roine has actually personally remixed, remastered and re-arranged every single song. For many songs, he even recorded new vocals and guitar parts! Hasse Fröberg also shows up to work. He has added new vocals and harmonies here and there, and even re-recorded some of his own lead vocals. One imagines this was at his own request; he has been known to say he wasn't always satisfied with his own takes on some of the songs. Every song is different from the original album version, and you're inevitably going to prefer one version over the other. Love it or hate it, you can't accuse Roine Stolt of phoning it in!
The photo on the cover - the one where Roine looks like a gangsta rapper - was made during the Paradox Hotel tour and was already outdated by the time the album came out: Marcus Liliequist was out, after what can't have been more than two years. It was around this time Roine started referring to this band as “the Spinal Tap of prog” for all the drummers they were losing. And it was just getting started…
I'm not going to do a track-by-track review, but I'll single out some songs I want to talk about. Globally, one can say that most of the songs sound more polished compared to their originals. Everything sounds fresh and smooth and shiny. The opener, the oldie “My Cosmic Lover”, is a prime example. It sounds clearer, less busy, less layered in effects. Less psychedelic, one might say. At the same time, the vocal harmonies sound fuller: Hasse Fröberg, who wasn't on the original, has been added to the mix.
“Rhythm of the Sea” has undergone a similarly drastic transformation: the original had heavy reverb on the vocals, all of which has been removed. As a result, the song sounds much more intimate and direct than the original. Roine is no longer in a field or on a bridge, he's right there in the room with you. It makes the song all the more impactful.
Newer songs have changed less drastically. “Cosmic Circus”, “Starlight Man”, “Paradox Hotel” and the fantastic “What If God Is Alone” sound basically the same as they do on their albums. An exception is “Touch My Heaven”, which has been given an entirely new guitar solo. I guess Roine must have been dissatisfied with the original solo (which, admittedly, sounded quite similar to the one from “All You Can Save”, though I don't know if that was the reason).
Roine has also removed some extended intros (“Rhythm of the Sea”) or outros (“Stupid Girl”) or otherwise cut suff out ( “Church of your Heart”). All this makes the songs sharper and pointier. No fluff, just the “good stuff”. If the studio albums gave us the extended versions of the songs, these are the single cuts.
It doesn't always work. There's a little acoustic ditty that opens part two of “I Am The Sun”, which is presented here as a standalone song without context. An interesting idea but I'm really missing the context of the whole song here, especially since it hasn't been given a real ending: it just fades out at the point where the next section is supposed to start.
Again, it's up to you whether you prefer the new or the old versions of the songs. Do you like things fresh and clean and shiny, or do you think Roine has taken all the charm out? For me, it's about fifty-fifty. The ones I end up liking most on this compilation are the ones that never really popped out at me on the albums. For instance, I've gained a whole new appreciation for songs like “World Without A Heart”, “Stupid Girl”, “Church of your Heart” (did it always have handclaps?), “Rhythm of the Sea” and “Different People”. This was absolutely one of Roine's main goals here, so that mission at least has been sucessful. On the other hand: the songs I always loved in the first place, such as “A King's Prayer”, “Ghost of the Red Cloud” or “Vox Humana” are the ones where I feel the new treatment adds the least.
There's a new song, too: “Little Deciever”. It's a little throwaway and not really the main reason you should seek out this album, but it's nice nonetheless. It describes a breakup from the point of view of an uninvolved but empathic onlooker rather than any of the lovers, a novel and interesting idea for a falling-out-of-love song. It's a very TFK way to go about it; TFK lyrics, compassionate though they are, are often observing from a distance rather than in the middle of the heat, like a Greek choir commenting on the plot without being part of it. TFK songs with a more personal angle do exist (and can be found here), but are much more rare.
Both disks end with two songs that are a little bit longer. Not “epic”, but around the nine-to-ten-minute mark. I gotta tell you, as much as I appreciate this album as a listening experience, it's a bit of a relief after all those short and snappy songs to have some music that stays with you for a while, that lets itself stretch out a bit. I can't help myelf; I guess I'm just a prog whore.
On disk one, we get the titular “The Road Back Home”, re-imagined as a duet between Stolt and Fröberg. It is beautiful as ever. Its instrumental section has an even greater impact than it did on Retropolis. It closes with TFK's cover of “The Cinema Show” which I was a bit down on back in my review of Scanning The Greenhouse. I've come around to this a little. Turns out I do think this version mostly does right by the original (which, as I've mentioned, is my favourite Genesis song and a pretty good contender for my favourite song of all time). This version really rocks in the instrumental section, and it has a looseness and a playfulness to it that the original doesn't. The original had little to no guitar on it in its second half so all lead guitar parts have been invented by Roine, and it's very, very well done. So there. I can say nice things.
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| Selling Sweden by the Krona |
So, here's the real test: what do the non-progheads make of this? Can you play this to your wife without her rolling her eyes? Can you play this to your colleagues without them looking at you funny? Can you play this to your kids without them looking for someone who wants to adopt them? I actually doubt this a little, but I'm not the right person to ask. My friends and family know pretty well what sort of music fan I am (and I've converted some of them to my cause). Maybe you, dear reader, can share some experiences with me?
All the changes Roine made make this compilation album far more interesting and exciting than compilation albums typically are. What is more, in recontextualizing all these songs the album really allows you to get a new sense of appreciation for the shorter, more “poppy” side of TFK. Combined with the more song-oriented approach that Paradox Hotel took, you might even be forgiven for thinking this “pop” thing (I keep putting the word in quotation marks, as even as a “pop” group, TFK basically have zero hit potential in this century) was going to be the new direction for the long term. Good heavens! Are The Flower Kings…. selling out?!? The next studio album is going to prove that asessment very wrong indeed…
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