Year: 2006
I am relatively new to The Flower Kings, but have slowly been exploring their discography. Paradox Hotel was recommended to me as one of their better albums so after being pleasantly surprised with Desolation Rose, I grabbed this one. Paradox Hotel is a meandering affair full of social commentary which I have not fully digested. While I love concept albums (where the whole is better than the sum of the parts), I feel like the music on this album really suffers as it seems to be an afterthought compared to the lyrics. The band has something to say and by golly they say it! The music just does not measure up, in my opinion.
While there is a lot of music on this double disc album, there are really only a few individual tracks that I find interesting. The first album begins with a very solid offering in "Monsters & Men" which begins the commentary on the European aggressors of World War II (Germany). While I haven't given the lyrics a whole lot of attention, a similar theme continues for the rest of the two discs with the music becoming rather boring and forgettable along the way.
The second disc has a few worthy additions in the tracks "Touch My Heaven", "Life Will Kill You" and "Paradox Hotel." Again, this album is much better as a whole and is really the only way to listen to it as the individual songs just don't have very compelling melodies. As a result, if I'm in the mood for The Flower Kings, I'd much rather listen to Stardust We Are or Unfold the Future.
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