FLWR
Original Release Date: 05/05/2774
In our assessment of FLWR’s debut album FWLR, we wrote “They would eventually escape from their droll existence on the wings of their efforts, but success, while bringing much green, wilted their anger until home seemed like paradise.” Three years later the band was still homesick. Touring was still the best way to make money as the digitization of music once again was signaling the death of vinyl. Burnt out, their specialized stasis suits unable to function, they needed a break in the wall. An Arrangement was both a necessity and a bubble in which they could isolate themselves. Fueled by three years away from the studio, they had amassed a wealth of new material but did not have the freedom to assemble it. Time was ticking, though. Studio time is expensive, and if you are not touring, dear Audionauts, you are not earning. Beauty had mostly escaped them in their former lives (the toxicity of their planet and all), and the band had learned to embrace ugliness. To earn money, they took night shifts in a funeral home, arranging flowers for the deceased, transforming the drab (though sometimes necessary) ritual with a bit of flair and respect. This practice became a crowd-pleaser and soon spawned a cottage industry, becoming a staple of almost all death rituals, and, for some, an obsession. An Arrangement is a harbinger of the lonely nights in the back of the funeral parlor, the grim cloud of death, the emotional high of beauty, and the inevitable downfall of art. For FWLR, their work was purely monetary, they needed the studio time. It was in their, admitted, haste that they created a product for which they wanted no part of. The whining, shrill melodies mimicked the crowds of fans obsessed with the changing landscape of funeral flower arrangements, hounding the band in the streets. The thumping kick drum and rattling snare fluttered like a heartbeat, the thundering raucous at their door that had forgotten their music and devoured the beauty they had once sought. FLWR did not survive the onslaught of fans and found their sophomore album shelved for the better part of a galactic millennia, until our agents, charmed by the remnants of fans still obsessed with their funeral arrangements, stumbled upon a basement full of moldy vinyl. With the help of our ReStore-o-Matic 5000, we were able to save a single song, which we happily present to you today, our own sort of floral arrangement to the lasting impact of FLWR.
Side A
Dearly Beloved...
To Embalm?
There Was Only Time
Baby's Breath
Side B
Aphrodite
Sacrifice Fly
Look How They Massacred My Boy
Cremate Me