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If Roine Stolt isn't the most prolific
artist in prog rock right now, he's sure making a grand attempt.
His work with The Flower Kings may be the best known. Then
there's the first two Tangent albums, Transatlantic, Kaipa,
his work with Neil Morse, other solo albums, and I'm sure
there are more I'm forgetting or don't know about.. So it
should be no surprise that when he wants to revisit the music
he grew up with it ends up being a two disc outing. And what
a great outing it is. ****
If you read the liner notes before
you pop in this sucker you are prepared for a big departure
from Roine's normal body of work. Normal being used loosely
here. If not you may be surprised. No, that's not a Cream
or Hendrix album accidentally in the case. That's Stolt on
a Telecaster or Les Paul Goldtop or Parker Fly Slide letting
his Howish influence rest for an album and going all bluesy
on us. And he's brought along some Flower King buddies old
and new, (are some of the names pseudonyms for other Flower
King friends,?) along with other friends for the ride. Man,
what a fun ride it is too. I really enjoyed the sounds that
blasted out of my speakers. ****
Things open with a Cream sounding
guitar tone; White Room anybody? It only gets better from
there as song two sees Stolt employing a Rickenbacker 12 string
while Neal Morse does his best Beatles impression. I could
go on and on as sound references to many classic groups are
hinted at strongly throughout. I'm reminded of Pink Floyd,
CSN and The Allmans. There's even a cover of Joni Mitchell's
Sex Kills. Hotrod on disc two is a drum driven 70's rocker
that I played a couple times the first time I heard it. And
lest we forget who we deal with here he throws in some neo-jazzy
parts such as the intro to song three that harken to his Flower
Kings work. ****
Lyrically he tells us he wanted
to reflect the spirit of the times and that shows strongly.
Taking whacks at capitalism and it's corporate greed, government
and it's hungriness for power, and our oversaturation of entertainment
and how it numbs us to the world's problems. He even throws
in a couple songs that reflect his belief that there is a
God and He's bigger then these things. ****
Now, not everything works here.
It's All About The Money, or Dog With a Million Bones, kind
of bog down. Maybe this kind of music isn't as given to long
passages? Although the Allman's did it so that's out. Anyway,
this is some great work from a prog master who steps out of
the prog boundaries and gives us some very cool sounding blasts
from the past. Man.
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