Look At You Now and the “Flower Power” of The Flower Kings

Look At You Now is a return to the past in many ways.

A return to the band's origins with the presence of Michael Stolt (Roine's brother) on bass and Hasse Fröberg on vocals, bringing together three of the original members who participated in Roine Stolt's 1994 solo album, The Flower King.

Further lineup changes with American keyboardist Zach Kamins leaving the band in April 2023 due to the logistical difficulty of traveling between the United States and Sweden for recordings, and the entry of Lalle Larsson, initially a guest on some tracks, who became the official keyboardist for the tour and subsequent works, including the 2025 album LOVE.

A return to more concise albums, after a series of double albums the band deliberately chose a single-disc format, the last being Desolation Rose ten years earlier, in 2013, with a duration of about 70 minutes for a more direct listening experience.

A return to the past also in terms of sound, with the pursuit of a more analog sound through a Rupert Neve mixing console, to achieve that warm, vintage sound typical of the classics of the '70s. In particular, the Rupert Neve Designs 5088 was used with its warm analog sound, a console that uses entirely discrete Class A amplification and with every input and output equipped with custom audio transformers that emphasize second and third order harmonics, giving the sound that richness and "softness" typical of classic '70s albums, designed among other things to allow the sound engineer to mix "with their ears" rather than looking at a screen, favoring a creative and intuitive approach.

A return to the past that is also realized by including the track "Beginner's Eyes," the album's opening track, which has a special history linking it to the band's origins, to the '90s when the song was written and composed even before the Flower Kings officially formed as a group in 1994. For years the song remained "forgotten" in what Stolt calls his "treasure chest" of unreleased music and was rediscovered, completed, and professionally recorded only for the Look At You Now sessions.

Conceptually, however, the album looks mainly to the present and the future.

The title of the track, "Beginner's Eyes," invites us to look at the world with the purity, wisdom, and imagination of a child. The album as a whole is a reading of current times, marked by wars, climate crisis, and migrations, and seeks to offer a message of hope and rebirth for the future. 

The very title of the album Look At You Now was chosen to reflect a moment of collective introspection and reaction to these same challenges. It is not just a criticism, a call to order, but an invitation to stop and observe what we have done to the planet and to ourselves.

The album explores themes of environmental and social crisis, as warnings about humanity's failure towards nature, wars, economic crises, and migrations, topics relevant in 2023 and still today.

There is a clear message of optimism through the reaffirmation of the concept of "Flower Power," which is the backbone of their entire artistic philosophy, strongly reaffirmed with this album and continued in 2025 with the album LOVE.

For Roine Stolt, "Flower Power" is a deliberate response to the darkness of the modern world; in a musical landscape often dominated by dark themes, they choose to be "stubbornly positive." Music as an antidote to despair, seeking to lift the listener's spirit. The term evokes a deep connection with the planet. In Look At You Now, tracks like Mother Earth and Father Sky explore the concept of the "power of flowers" as the vital force of nature that humanity must return to respect. Although it draws from the psychedelic aesthetic and the values of "peace and love" of 1967, the Flower Kings filter it through progressive rock. It is not a naive message, but an invitation to conscious reflection. The "power" does not reside in brute force, but in imagination, creativity, and kindness. The culmination is reached with the 2025 album "LOVE," a work in which "Flower Power" evolves into an exploration of the power of universal love as the only force capable of repairing the fractures of contemporary society.

Musically, the album is a refined synthesis of The Flower Kings' style, symphonic progressive rock, but with a compact and melodic structure compared to the long suites of the past.

A sound influenced by classic '70s prog made with vintage instrumentation, such as the Hammond organ, Mellotron, and Moog, with tracks lasting between 4 and 6 minutes, but with frequent odd time signatures and tempo changes by an excellent Mirko DeMaio and with digressions into jazz-fusion with syncopated and virtuosic guitar riffs.

Beautiful is the contrast and interaction between the two main voices, that of Roine Stolt with a warm timbre and that of Hasse Fröberg, almost tenor-like and typically hard rock, which create splendid multi-voice harmonies in the choruses.

- The Queen, another instrumental track, has a majestic atmosphere and influences of medieval folk with harpsichord and tambourine.

- The Light In Your Eyes, great with a big drum part by Mirko DeMaio.

- Seasons End with a beautiful vocal interaction between Roine Stolt and Hasse Fröberg, with a great organ part.

- Scars is a track characterized by excellent synthesizers.

- Stronghold, an epic track that grows in intensity up to a long and beautiful Floydian-style guitar solo.

- Father Sky is a short and captivating track with a 7/8 rhythm and a pop-rock feel.

- Day For Peace is a beautiful ballad with a great vocal part by Marjana Semkina, very moving.

- Look At You Now is the suite of the album, a vintage, symphonic track with continuous tempo changes, synth and guitar solos, and a beautiful epic ending.

Note: All links to the musicians' works are in the TAGS under the article title or on the "Artists" page

Tracklist

1. Beginner's Eyes (4:37)
2. The Dream (4:39)
3. Hollow Man (5:02)
4. Dr. Ribedeaux (3:04)
5. Mother Earth (4:18)
6. The Queen (5:28)
7. The Light in Your Eyes (5:48)
8. Seasons End (5:27)
9. Scars (5:29)
10. Stronghold (6:46)
11. Father Sky (3:08)
12. Day for Peace (3:14)
13. Look at You Now (11:49)

Duration 68:49

LineUp

- Hasse Fröberg - vocals
- Roine Stolt - vocals, guitars, keyboards, percussion
- Michael Stolt - bass, vocals, keyboards (5), guitar (5)
- Mirko Demaio - drums and percussion, keyboard (12)

With:
- Hasse Bruniusson - percussion (3)
- Lalle Larsson - synthesizers (4,9)
- Jannica Lund - backing vocals (1,2,3,5,7,11,13)
- Marjana Semkina - vocals (12)
- Jörgen Sälde - nylon guitar (6)