The Road Back Home: The Best Of (2CD)

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Product Reviews

(3 stars) - Mostly fluff, not a lot of stuff
I know I'm gonna get flamed but, ya' know, too bad. I had never even heard of the Flower Kings until they were recommended to me. I was told "As good as Yes or Pink Floyd, or Rush". I was stoaked and ready to hear me some Flower Kings. I thought why not get a greatest hits and that way I can hear all the good stuff I've supposedly missed. This being a 2 CD set I put in the first CD and waited to be amazed, The first 8 songs were very, very good. Roine Stolt is an excellent guitar player and the other musicians were up to the task as his equals on their chosen instruments. Starting with track 9 it all went downhill fast. "This is the new Rush, or Yes or Pink Floyd ?" I asked myself. Not even on the same planet!! I thought disc 2 might be better. Wrong again....(see where this is going?) The only decent songs on disc 2 were Touch My Heaven and Life Will Kill You and this only because of the level of musicianship. All the rest of the songs sounded like old 60's flower power love songs. You remember The Cowsills, Harpers Bizarre, etc. etc. I half expected little butterflies to come winging there way out of the stereo and flowers to drop from the ceiling. This stuff was mush!!
If they are the next Pink Floyd or Yes, we're in trouble. I gave this collection 3 stars but only for Stolt's guitar work. He is truly amazing.
If someone can tell me which of their albums are MUCH MUCH better than this one, I'll give them a listen but if this truly is their best.....don't bother.

(4 stars) - In Defense of The Flower Kings!
This may be as much a rant as a review......Are you people out of your mind? This is a treasure of a band.They have as much claim to the continued growth and resurgence of Progressive Rock as anyone.All I read is this could be better or that one doesn't hold my interest. I won't analyze or "overanalyze" the individual songs on this set. Suffice to say that there is plenty of great stuff here. For anyone new to this band, there is enough to pique your interest for further research into their massive output of work.I am aware that everyone is a critic these days, but give me a break! These guys make some incredible music and will continue to so. LONG LIVE THE FLOWER KINGS!!!!!!!

(5 stars) - The Road Back Home is an Adventure!
For those who know me, I am a huge Flower Kings fan. For someone who has all of thier records, including the solo outings and official bootlegs, etc... you would think I would be one tough customer, as I have heard it all. But not so with this double album set! Of course, you have your jaded listeners who'll say, "I have all of these songs already, why buy this?" For anyone who knows how a perfectionist (such as master Stolt) labors over his art, you can imagine how many sleepless nights were spent trying to get the right sound and then discovering (sometimes years later!) that it's not quite there yet... perhaps the recording equipment was available at the time, or perhaps a better idea came along... Anyway the point of all this rambling is: it is easy for the casual listener to be contented with the orignal recordings and roll their eyes at a "re-issue". But this is not a re-issue. It is a true labor of love as it is an attempt to try to capture things that the artist felt were missing in the original recordings. To think, it took Leonardo DiVinci TEN YEARS to paint the lips on the Mona Lisa! A true artist is never satisfied! Roine Stolt and the members of the Flower kings are no exception. They are true artists who are never contented with their art, and for that all of us casual listeners should be grateful!!!

So rather than go through the list of songs with the intention of trying to convince someone to purchase this record, I will conclude with the following: if you appreciate the genius that is the Flower Kings, you will appreciate this record.

And be sure to Preorder the new album The Sum Of No Evil!!!

(4 stars) - Nothing new
Nothing new is in there, lots of the best tracks of TFK are missing and they released it probably because they haven't done anything for months. It is good if you don't have most of the previous works though

(5 stars) - Don't ignore this "best of" just because it appears to be superfluous...
I admit that I initially hesitated on this purchase.
I mentally listed all the reasons that I did NOT need this latest Flower Kings compilation:
1.) I have practically everything they've put out over the past ten years.
2.) I actually enjoy their longer prog epics more than these shorter songs that they assembled.
3.) Shouldn't we just leave the original versions alone, shortcomings and all?

But thanks to convincing reviews like the one from my esteemed colleague from Istanbul, I cast all fears aside and immersed myself into 153 more minutes of re-mixed and re-mastered FK music - thankfully! This is just such an enjoyable collection; long-time fans get to hear these shorter gems in a slightly different way (one great song after another), and newcomers to the band get a fabulous introduction to the melodic style and virtuosity of the band. Roine Stolt's liner notes help both the fans and the newbies to understand the message or style that the band was trying to convey on each track, as well as what changes were made for this recording. Many pictures of the various band members populate the liner notes as well, along with the usual colorful artwork that graces all of the FK cd's.

Oh, and don't overlook their cover of Genesis' "Cinema Show" - you want proof of just how good these musicians are? (I know, it's tempting, tempting.......Add...to...cart?...)

This was a very ingenious way for the band to get some of its more accessible works out to the inquisitive public, but also to reward the avid fan with yet another affirmation of this band's wealth of ideas and talent (before their next album comes out later this year!).
Buy with confidence and delight.

I value interesting music that is played and recorded well. This cd's rating was based on:
Music quality = 9/10; Performance = 9.3/10; Production = 9.5/10; CD length = 10/10.
Overall score weighted on my proprietary scale = 9.2 ("4-1/2 stars")

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