Having followed and listened to pretty much everything from Dream Theater, Transatlantic and Neal Morse, it's quite strange that it's taken me over ten years to buy a Flower Kings album.
So what do I make of their 2012 release, Banks of Eden?
It's risky to judge a progressive rock album on only three full listens, but my thoughts are clear enough already to commit words to a blogpost.
This was a triumph.
This is like Yes with the boring (and most of the nonsensical) bits removed. It's prog with dynamics. The first track, Numbers is an epic that really holds together.
A friend back at university pointed out to me that a Transatlantic track was really a handful of pop songs glued together with proggy instrumentals. Most of Morse's output falls into this pattern, as do some Dream Theater epics, to a lesser extent. I still love and highly rate lots of this material but it's great to hear something fresh that doesn't sound like prog by numbers.
Of course, had I heard the whole TFK back catalogue, this album may have seemed less original. One much-repeated tune bears a similarity to 'motherless children's from Duel with the Devil and there are lyrical ideas re-used from TA and even King Crimson.
Still, this album has been gratefully received by my eardrums and I highly recommend it to yours.
