Member:
Constable Hogweed
(Profile)
(All Album Reviews by Constable Hogweed)
Date:
7/1/2003
Format:
CD (Album)
Often overlooked as wimpy hippies, The Moody Blues created some fine progressive rock in the late 60s and early 70s and deserve a mention. After the experimental orchestra orientated Days of Future Passed in 1967, The Moodies fleshed out their sound with Mike Pinder's mellotron coming to the fore in the excellent In Search of the Lost Chord in 1968. The peak was to come in 1969 with the awesome On the Threshold of a Dream.
The album starts with the mid tempo rocker "Lovely to see you" with some fine guitar playing by Justin Hayward. The beauty of this album for me is the very many styles they incorporated into one album. "Send me no wine" is a restrained but catchy number. Ray Thomas provides 2 amusing but catchy numbers. "Dear Diary" must bring a smile to the most cynical face, likewise "Lazy day" down to earth lyrics about a typical Sunday with the obligatory Sunday roast...whimsical but amusingly so.
The other side of the coin is the brilliance of "Never comes the day" a Hayward penned number ranging from melancholic to up-tempo. The tour-DE-force however belongs to Mr. mellotron Mike Pinder. The excellent 3 part piece, "Have you heard (part 1)", "The Voyage" and "Have you heard (part 2)". The first part starts off with some nice acoustic guitar playing with Pinder's understated but emotional singing...."The Voyage" is an instrumental of brilliance with Pinder shining with some outstanding mellotron, organ and piano playing....disturbing sounding stuff...edgy....and brilliant. "Have you heard" pops back up again with a couple of minutes of nice tunefulness before the album ends with Pinder's keyboards again sounding menacing and disturbing.
My favourite Moody Blues album. Despite the status of Justin Hayward it was Mike Pinder who lent the band that pure progressive edge. An album worth its weight in gold.
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