Kings of Nowhere

This is a wordy but oh so fitting moniker for Shayne O'Neill's music, as the Future Kings of Nowhere perfectly captures the insouciant grandness he aspires to, with the self-deprecating twist that is the secret to his success. Actually, the secret to his success is summed up best on "I'm Still Waiting": "Take my quick observations and my questions and my poor explanations and wrap them up into rhymes. Weave them around my mouth, suffer me up into brilliance, until no-one doesn't know my name." With a sharp eye for mundane details, a wry wit, and an occasional ironic twist, the Future King and his cortege of guesting alterno-royalty take a royal trip around O'Neill's ragtag inner realm. Along the way there are amends to make, specifically on "Paper Napkins," an apology to the ex-girlfriend who's been the foil of the singer's many breakup songs. Perhaps "Never" describes their relationship, "Like a Staring Contest" their "trainwreck of an ending," but surely not the girl who did a runner and addressed in a folksy letter from home on "C Is for Heartache." There again, when you entangle yourself with women with a history of "high speed chase, no dialogue," as O'Neill does on "I Want You," it's no wonder problematic relationships make up the bulk of this set.

Dreams are an essential part of the musical world. Despite having been firmly involved in Sweden's highly fertile prog rock scene in the '70s, Roine Stolt (Kaipa, The Tangent, Transatlantic) was still harbouring dreams of maximum creative fulfilment when he arrived in the '90s, guitar in hand and a head full of sublime musical ideas. The end-result was a solo album, 'The Flower King', which struck such a resounding chord with a small but growing number of prog fans around the planet. It also proved to be one of a handful of albums that helped to kick-start and underpin a worldwide resurgence for adventurous, symphonic rock music that is still gaining momentum over two decades later. You can find the proof of what happened next within this lavish, generously proportioned box set containing the first half of The Flower Kings' extraordinary catalogue of immersive, immaculate studio albums…

Roine Stolt's voice is strong, full, passionate, and delightfully accented. The Flower Kings' lyrics are heady, compelling, and hook city. The guitar work is extremely melodic and rates right up there with anything Brian May or David Gilmour has offered. Stolt is expertly meshed in this band with brother Michael on bass and voice. Tomas Bodin excels on Hammond organ, Mellotron, piano, and flute…

Swedish progressive rock legends The Flower Kings, and longtime label-partners InsideOutMusic, will begin an extensive reissue campaign in 2022, which will see the entire catalogue of the band reissued on CD & Vinyl in remastered editions, with it being the first time many of the albums have been available on wax. First up are 1995’s Back In The World of Adventures & 1996’s Retropolis, which both featured the line-up of Roine Stolt, Tomas Bodin, Michael Stolt, Jaime Salazar, Hasse Fröberg, Ulf Wallander and Hasse Bruniusson. They will be available as Ltd CD Digipak & Gatefold 2LP+CD & LP-booklet, both featuring remastered and partly remixed audio and expanded artwork and photo material from that period.