The Moody Blues The Present (Vinyl, Threshold Records, 1983) ***
The Moody Blues The Other Side of Life (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1986) ***
The Moody Blues Sur La Mer (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1988) **
The Moody Blues Keys of the Kingdom (CD, Polydor Records, 1991) **
They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7
Active compensatory factors: With Mike Pinder departing, the Moody Blues brought in keyboardist Patrick Moraz as a replacement. Patrick had been in Yes as a replacement for Rick Wakeman and now he was charged with the same duties in The Moody Blues. Sadly, that meant more synths, no mellotron. I am consoled by the fact that the synth presence is quite understated.
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That still means the band sound more like Electric Light Orchestra than The Moody Blues at times (Gemini Dream) but overall Long Distance Voyager is a strong opening statement with The Voice a clear highlight on their first album of the eighties.
The Other Side of Life came three years after The Present, which came two years after Long Distance Voyager. The album was now on Polydor Records, rather than their own Threshold imprint. Given it's 1986, and Patrick Moraz is again involved (for the last time as it happened), the band was heavily reliant on synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines.
Sur La Mer starts off again with a Justin Hayward pop song that has a catchy hook - I Know You're Out There Somewhere. It's the clear standout on a sub-par album. That takes nothing away from Justin Hayward though, as he is a terrific musician and composer (I've already written about his solo albums here).
Where do they all belong? That's it for the studio albums. I am missing their last two albums - Strange Times (1999) and December (their Christmas album from 2003). So, live Moodies and a couple of compilations are next.
Genre: Synth pop, prog rock
Places I remember: Real Groovy Records
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Voice (Long Distance Voyager)
Gear costume: Gemini Dream (Long Distance Voyager), Your Wildest Dreams (The Other Side of Life)
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Voice (Long Distance Voyager)
Gear costume: Gemini Dream (Long Distance Voyager), Your Wildest Dreams (The Other Side of Life)
Active compensatory factors: With Mike Pinder departing, the Moody Blues brought in keyboardist Patrick Moraz as a replacement. Patrick had been in Yes as a replacement for Rick Wakeman and now he was charged with the same duties in The Moody Blues. Sadly, that meant more synths, no mellotron. I am consoled by the fact that the synth presence is quite understated.
_front_cover.png)
The Present was their eleventh album, and Patrick Moraz's second album as a Moodie. His synths are a little more intrusive than they were on Long Distance Voyager and while it has the usual Moody Blues' catchy melodies, it's lacking in pizzazz.
Tony Visconti is in the producer role for this album, and he does a great job. I can even move past the synths because the songs are good, kicking off with Your Wildest Dreams - another Justin Hayward pearler.
Tony Visconti is again involved and so was Patrick Moraz, so that means so were those pesky eighties sounds - even more so on Sur La Mer. While the songs are still recognisable (just) as Moodies songs, the synth pop sound is a long way from their sixties'/ seventies' prog pomp. It's pretty telling that Ray Thomas does not appear on this album, although he hadn't left the band.
The final album on my list is Keys of the Kingdom from 1991. Ray is back, and so too is the pop sound without the synth pop of the previous two albums. That said, there were no hit songs off the album, and even Sur La Mer had one of those!
Where do they all belong? That's it for the studio albums. I am missing their last two albums - Strange Times (1999) and December (their Christmas album from 2003). So, live Moodies and a couple of compilations are next.
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