The Flower King’s keyboardist, Tomas Bodin second solo release, Pinup Guru is a fairly long CD at 71 minutes. It follows in the tradition of getting as much music for your money formula that, depending on who you talk to, made The Flower Kings famous or infamous. The only difference is that there’s never a dull or filler moment on the disc..For those that aren’t aware, his style of playing combines classical rock, hard rock, folk, electronica, ska and even film soundtrack music throughout Pinup Guru, sometimes even within the very same song! This time around it’s trio format and Bodin is helped by two of his Flower King buddies, Zoltan Csorsz on drums and Jonas Reingold on bass. I think that Tomas needs to get other musicians to expand his musical thoughts outside the realm of The Flower Kings. Sadly I noticed around the various prog fourums that The Flower Kings are looked upon with favorable eyes or ears. That’s just too bad that some develop a snobbish attitude towards progressive music that isn’t “complex for complex sake”. Tomas touches on everything from a basic melody to some outlandish and quirky samplings.
This cd is chock full of musical fun! Another thing, Tomas never comes off as a flashy over the top, so maybe in time he’ll get the respect due to him. In the meantime, help out and purchase this and his other two cds even if you’re not a Flower Kings aficionado.
Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on May 2nd, 2004
