Anteater

Album Title: The Flower King
Artist: Roine Stolt
Nationality: Swedish
Year: 1994
Subgenre: Neo Prog., though its arguable that its not either.
Player(s): Roine Stolt (Lead Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Percussion), Hasse Froberg (Vocals only on tracks 1 & 8), Hasse Brunisson/Jaime Salazar (Drums), Dexter Frank Jr (Keyboards), Don Azarro (Bass, Moog Taurus), Ulf Wallander (Sax)
Familiarity: I own a few of TFK albums, including this one.
Favourite track(s): Either 'Humanizzimo' or 'The Pilgrim's Inn'
Why? Former is a great, multi-faceted epic suite (which I like a lot) and the latter is a great instrument.
Least favourite track(s): 'The Flower King'
Why? The chorus is a bit annoying. Thankfully, Stolt's writing got better on the next few albums.
Any preconceptions prior to listening, whether good or bad? I've been aware of TFK and their associated projects for so long that I doubt this question applies to me these days.
Factoids you'd like to share? Roine has been around a lonnng time: he's the guitar prodigy behind Kaipa, one of Sweden's classic 70's prog outfits.
End impression: This album, unlike everything else that would come later with The Flower Kings, sounds like it was meant to be something of a one-shot from Roine. For one thing, Jonas Reingold and his distinctive bass playing isn't here, and he's a key element to why TFK worked well on later albums. His absence is felt..but again, if we consider this a debut, you can forgive it. Everyone has to start somewhere right?

Roine's guitar playing is probably the biggest highlight for me, since he is actually very distinctive: he's got a knack for the minor key and great sustains like David Gilmour or maybe Andy Latimer, but unlike those two he likes to bring his blues background into the forefront - his tone is earthier, but that's what distinguishes him in a genre where technical competency reigns supreme but everyone runs the risk at sounding exactly like eachother.

Still, Roine is one of those singers you love or hate depending on the song. Partly why the band has always been hit or miss with me too.

Rating: A generous 3.5.

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Moss

I think you are angry at my flower kings review.

Just kidding, this seems quite appropriate.

Unknown Soldier

Album Title: The Flower King
Artist: Roine Stolt
Nationality: Swedish
Year: 1994
Subgenre: neo-prog
Player(s): Roine Stolt (Lead Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Percussion), Hasse Froberg (Vocals only on tracks 1 & 8), Hasse Brunisson/Jaime Salazar (Drums), Dexter Frank Jr (Keyboards, “electronics”), Don Azarro (Bass, Moog Taurus), Ulf Wallander (Sax)
Familiarity: Quite a bit, but the problem is that I haven't heard anything by the band in around 5 years so had forgotten most of their material. Even though this is a solo album
Favourite track(s): “Humanizzimo”
Why? It's the showpiece track of the album and really impressed on the two listens I gave it.
Least favourite track(s): None
Why? N/A
Any preconceptions prior to listening, whether good or bad? I knew this was a Roine Stolt solo album, but also knew that it served as a blueprint for the Flower Kings.
Factoids you'd like to share? Roine Stolt has a son named Peter Gabriel.
End impression: Maybe I wasn't in the mood for this album but the only song I really enjoyed was the almost final "Humanizzimo" which made up for the average feel of the rest.
Comments: I always knew that Roine Stolt's singing was always a key factor to getting into his music, but had forgotten how clean and somewhat processed the music can sound like, but then again when I like the songs I'd hardly notice this. I usually don't mind a processed sound as such, but usually don't always dig it on a prog rock record, but then again this is the 90s and it's modern prog which has different approaches from traditional prog. As said
“Humanizzimo” is a great 21 minute track that consists of various sections and genres and shows just how talented Roine Stolt as an artist is
Rating: 3.5 thanks to the "Humanizzimo" track.

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Trollheart

Hmm. Seems I'm the only one (so far; Ant has yet to present his review) who liked this album. And I didn't expect to at all. Interesting...

Anyhoo, here's the next one. Spinning brought me to
858
and that equates to

Aerial --- Kate Bush

It's a double; sorry about that but hey: double Kate? Can't be bad...
I know this may not seem a natural choice for a prog rock album, but it's on the list and I can be reasonably sure that it will not be the last, shall we say, prog-related album we'll end up reviewing.

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Anteater

I did review it. Check the last page.

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Trollheart

Angry? I'm the very epitome of zen calm...


In case you missed it, a Standard Member is valued just as much as a Core Member. Your ratings are added into the overall score for every album. If you want to be a Core Member you can certainly do that, but there's a little more work involved. Now if I had called you an Associate Member, you would have a legitimate grievance, as those people generally don't contribute that much or that often.

Saying you're a Standard Member is like saying "You're all right man"...
Which you are.

Yep, totally missed that one. Poor old Roine: no love for the guy huh? Hope you'll all be much gentler on our Kate!

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Moss

Looking forward to the Kate Bush!

Trollheart

Album Title: Aerial
Artist: Kate Bush
Nationality: British
Year: 2005
Subgenre: Prog related?
Player(s): Way too many to list but the main ones: Kate Bush (Vocals, Piano, Keyboards), Dan McIntosh (Guitars), Gary Brooker (Hammond), Peter Erskine/Steve Elliot/Pete Sanger (Drums), Eberhard Weber/John Giblin/Del Palmer (Bass), Rolf Harris (Didgeridoo and male vocal on “The painters link”), Chris Hall (Accordion)
Familiarity: Everyone knows Kate. Though I admit I don't know enough of her material as I should.
Favourite track(s): Here you have me. This album is just unbelievable and picking out a favourite track is like trying to choose between your children. Luckily I don't have children, so I can choose, but it is hard. “King of the mountain”, “Pi”, “A coral room”, “Nocturn”, “How to be invisible”, “The painter's link”, “Sunset” ... they're all great tracks. If I was pushed, maybe “A coral room”.
Why? Everything here, almost, is great but I love the gentle ambience and relaxing atmosphere of “A coral room ”, and there's nobody like Kate to sing it. Could do without “Little brown jug” though!
Least favourite track(s): Again, none really but if I have to choose I'd say the title and closer, “Aerial”.
Why? Because so much of it is just Kate laughing, and while that's a lovely sound I want more on a song than that. Though then again it is just over a minute of that and I love the rest of the song.
Any preconceptions prior to listening, whether good or bad? I expected it to be good, but not quite this good.
Factoids you'd like to share?
End impression: I need to listen to much more Kate Bush!
Comments: To be honest, when this came up I sort of thought “Oh dear” (again!) because I certainly don't consider Kate to be prog. From the off though I was impressed and really that never lessened as the album went on. It's so good that I never even realised it was a double until I went to check the Wiki page. I could have listened to twice as much music and still been unsatisfied. I find it amazing --- if expected --- that the album is almost entirely driven on Kate's piano. Of course there are other musicians, but the piano holds court over everything and is the main instrument in all songs.

Kate's voice of course is soothing and sexy at once, and if there's an icon for women in music she has to be up there with them. I do in fact hear the prog elements as the album goes on, but still think it's pushing it a little to call this prog. But it's a brilliant album, incredibly well constructed and played, and if this were to be anyone's introduction to Kate's music you could probably not pick a better one, though I admit I don't know much of her other work, a situation I must rectify soonest.

If I have any small niggles (don't be so personal!) it's that she repeats the line “Washing machine” so often on “Mrs. Bertollozi” that it gets boring, and the birds on “Aerial tal” are annoying and the laughter on the closer. Other than that it's bloody perfect.

Rating This is an amazing album and I am totally blown away by it. It's close to perfection and has certainly made me eager to explore more of Kate's music. I have no hesitation in awarding it the highest possible rating of
5.0

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Unknown Soldier

Album Title: Aerial
Artist: Kate Bush
Nationality: British
Year: 2005
Subgenre: Prog related
Player(s): Way too many to list but the main ones: Kate Bush (Vocals, Piano, Keyboards), Dan McIntosh (Guitars), Gary Brooker (Hammond), Peter Erskine/Steve Elliot/Pete Sanger (Drums), Eberhard Weber/John Giblin/Del Palmer (Bass), Rolf Harris (Didgeridoo and male vocal on “The painters link”), Chris Hall (Accordion)
Familiarity: Back in the 80s and 90s she was one of my favourite artists.
Favourite track(s): Difficult as the album seems to run as two continual very long tracks but the first album does seem to identify itself as individual songs, whereas the second seems to be more of one long suite.
Why? N/A
Least favourite track(s): As I'm treating it as two long tracks it's not a overly valid.
Why? N/A
Any preconceptions prior to listening, whether good or bad? Had heard it many years ago but to be fair have problems getting into Kate Bush as a mature artist.
Factoids you'd like to share? Hardly used to tour as she found it too stressful.
End impression: If this is prog then much of her other material could be as well.
Comments: Aerial is a pretty lush sounding album driven by Kate Bush and her piano. As per usual she's used a host of various musicians and her customary sound effects and it is a good album.

Overall Aerial is a lush and accomplished album that DOES need numerous listens to dig out it's richness. The issue for me though is that this is mature Kate Bush meaning that her earlier energy and idiosyncracies are void imo on this and her more recent work, but that's not to say that the album doesn't have an exciting vibe to it. I still find her first five albums pretty amazing stuff and they're so unique in feel and style and few artists have such a run to match these five albums.

I went off her musically with The Sensual World as the album largely seemed to cater for the masses by presenting Kate Bush as an artist that the average music listener could appreciate and at that time she was constantly being promoted as the women's ambassador for British music, meaning that she lost some of her aura and the following The Red Shoes was a real disappointment as an album. Kate Bush has always been about aura and mystique and on Aerial she does capture it again to a degree, even though it doesn't have the more manical style of old.

Rating Based on this listen I'd give the below rating, but that could probably go up half a point if I had the time to listen to it again, I guess I've recently been spoilt when it comes to five star double albums as I'd just been re-listening to Can's Tago Mago which really is a 5.0
4.0

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Moss

Album Title: Aerial
Artist: Kate Bush
Nationality: British
Year: 2005
Subgenre: Prog-ish
Player(s): Kate Bush (Vocals, Piano, Keyboards), Dan McIntosh (Guitars), Gary Brooker (Hammond), Peter Erskine/Steve Elliot/Pete Sanger (Drums), Eberhard Weber/John Giblin/Del Palmer (Bass), Rolf Harris (Didgeridoo and male vocal on “The painters link”), Chris Hall (Accordion)
Familiarity: Very familiar with Kate but not familiar with this album at all other than King of the Mountain.
Favourite track(s): How to be invisible with King of the Mountain or Aerial a close second.
Why? How to be invisible has a great pulsing groove to it. When I look at the songs I like best on here, they are the ones that are less piano/vocal based and more bass, guitar, drums, band sounding.
Least favourite track(s): Bertie
Why? Not really sure. I know it's a beautiful song written about her son but it just didn't work for me. A little too Baroque Ren fair sounding or something.
Any preconceptions prior to listening, whether good or bad? Very few. Always liked Kate Bush but never really delved deeply into any of her work.
Factoids you'd like to share? Kind of cool how David Gilmour was such a big help early in her career. I do admire how she puts family above everything.
End impression: I have a hard time calling this prog although it does have prog elements I guess.
Comments: Kate Bush is certainly one of the more lauded musicians of our time, especially in England, and for good reason. I have a hard time figuring out what to rate this album. It's quite a bit like Joanna Newsom in that I can see such clear artistry and talent yet it's just not something I am prone to listen to. I have never been a big fan of the piano/vocal/soprano combo in general and it's just so mellow (for lack of a better word). I don't mind mellow music so not sure why I feel that way. There are some beautiful melodies and lyrics throughout this album and I really need more time with it to really be fair. I had a hard time really giving this enough spins this week and there is a lot of material on here. But it is unlikely I will bother to listen to it enough to really let it sink in. I can admire it as an artistic statement and it does make me want to hear more Kate Bush but I would almost have to be forced again. Hard for me to explain. So much music and so little time. Glad I spent time listening to it and it was not time wasted but I will be moving on.

Rating: 4.0 - Clearly a great album