Eighteen years. That’s how far we’re skipping into the future for the next review of The Flower Kings. Get your gasps out now: not only will we not see entries for The Sum of No Evil or even Waiting For Miracles, which was my first exposure to the band, but I don’t believe I’ve ever heard the other albums, at least in their entirety. I’m sure I’ll get to them eventually, but for now I want to talk about Islands, the band’s COVID album, recorded remotely and stitched together by Roine Stolt in his enforced downtime. So marvel at the Roger Dean cover (it’s a beaut) and let’s take a stroll through the band’s latest (in this series) approach to its unique blend of progressive rock.

So what’s happened in the intervening years between Unfold The Future and Islands? Well, from 2008 to 2012, there was an actual hiatus (though Stolt continued releasing music with Transatlantic and other outlets) before coming back with Banks Of Eden. The divisive Desolation Rose followed in 2013, and Waiting For Miracles in 2019, with further excursions with Transatlantic, Jon Anderson, and even a solo venture confusingly attributed to “Roine Stolt’s The Flower King”.

It gets a bit muddled, but the big thing here is more significant lineup changes. The huge one is the departure of Tomas Bodin, who left after Desolation Rose and was replaced by Zach Kamins. Zoltan Csörsz is out too, having left in 2005, come back in 2007 for The Sum of No Evil only to leave again. Islands sees Mirko DeMaio as drummer in his second outing with the band. So we’re getting a very different iteration of TFK, one that also has a different mission statement in its songwriting. Noticeably absent are the massive epics of the past: the long track on Islands is nine and a half minutes, with everything else much shorter. This focus on shorter songs makes listening to the entirety of a Flower Kings records a little easier (the album is 95 minutes and change, a far cry from their 140 minute opuses), and also allows for more variety throughout, while maintaining themes and lines that reinforce the cohesion of the album as a whole. In the brief liner notes Stolt mentions this is meant to be consumed as a single experience, one long song chopped into digestible segments. I won’t go that far, but it does make for a more palatable experience.

So how is it? I’m going to take a break from song-by-song analysis and focus on the highlights. I love the 1-2 punch of “Racing With The Blinders On” and “From The Ground”. The former uses crowd noises to recall that sense of togetherness we were missing, and the music is propulsive, great guitars and melody lines weaving through Stolt reassuring the listener not to lose hope in a mad world. From the progressive rocking of the opener it spins a 180 for “From The Ground” which is bright and bubbly and has an incredible earworm of a melody I haven’t been able to get out of my head. The Latin flair that opens “Black Swan” is nice but the songs drags a bit for me with its swinging 60s pop vibe.

Things pick up again with “Broken” featuring a signature TFK solo break where we really get to hear what Kamins and DeMaio bring to the band. Kamins in particular shines, contributing not only to the songwriting but assisting with the orchestral programming and playing other instruments like classical guitar. DeMaio has more of a rock player feel to his playing, but he’s super solid and able to swing in the pocket with Reingold, who feels surprisingly restrained throughout Islands. Maybe it’s the circumstances of recording, maybe he has other things on his mind (this is his last full album with the band, with Michael Stolt coming back for 2022’s By Royal Decree). “Tangerine” is a funky fun ride, with Fröberg and Stolt sharing vocals and Kamins getting some Moog and synth bass in there.

Situated about halfway through Islands is “Solaris” which is the epic of the album, albeit a short one at less than 10 minutes. And it’s fine, but this is where to my ears the limitation of working in pandemic conditions hinder parts of the album. I think given the opportunity to jam this out we could’ve had a much more dynamic track that really sells the drama and musical ideas of the band. I don’t know how you do that when literal countries separate band members, and Zoom isn’t particularly conducive to live jamming. As it stands the word that comes to mind listening to it is “cautious” – something I never would have used to describe a Flower Kings song before.

But with 21 songs there are bound to be a few that are less effective than others, so I’m not at all soured on Islands at this point. “Heart Of The Valley” picks the pieces up nicely, and it’s interesting to note that TFK don’t need 25 minutes to cram a bunch of musical ideas in. There’s plenty of variety to be had here, from the guitar solo showcase of “Man In A Two Piece Suit” to Fröberg’s poppy “All I Need Is Love” and the Kamin-penned instrumentals “A New Species” and “Hidden Angles” with their 80s Zappa vibes firmly in place. I miss the sax of Ulf Wallander, but “Serpentine” opens with a nice solo and thematic introduction by guest musician Rob Townsend and I admit to being delighted by the child-like sing-song of the vocals. Lyrically it’s a bit heavy handed (a common theme with Flower King lyrics), but importantly the fun and athletic playing is firmly in place.

A lot of songs segue into each other, helping to ease the sensation of a “scattershot” album. Overall I’d emphasize the “playful” nature of Islands, with the instrumental title track being a nice way to close everything out. There’s nothing overly dramatic and overblown, most likely due to the shorter song lengths. Despite the loss of Bodin I don’t hear much of a loss in direction other than the one no one on the planet could help at this time.

From here there’s one more album to go, incidentally the first one I actually purchased a physical copy of. We’ll get into that next week as we welcome September and close out this chapter of Consuming the Flower Kings.