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In Search of the Lost Chord by The Moody Blues (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: In Search of the Lost Chord
  • Group name: The Moody Blues
  • Year: 1968
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Deram Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written on top left of album, indicating that my father owned it
  • Buy it on Amazon: $35.98

In Search of the Lost Chord by The Moody Blues

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this record before, but it will be my fifth by the Moody Blues. The previous four were:

What I expected

More progressive rock with Space Oddity vibes.

What it was actually like

The weird and completely unnecessary narrator did reappear on on In Search of the Lost Chord, and he was as annoying as he was on the other records, but fortunately the narration was limited to just two brief tracks, Departure and The Word.

The Best Way to Travel had some really irritating sound effects, but otherwise sounded more or less like the Beatles of 1968-9.

I thought that Legend of a Mind was the best song on the record, with a weird, psychedelic riff from what sounded like a keyboard and organ, and it also passed the flute test. A bunch of other songs failed the flute test, however, most notably Visions of Paradise. The flute test, by the way, comes from my review of Loggins and Messina (1972):

…I’m maybe slightly more forgiving of flute being used in rock music [than saxophone], if only because it’s so uncommon, but there’s a simple standard that I would apply: are you Jethro Tull? Are you better than Jethro Tull, or engaged in a serious attempt to do something that Jethro Tull hasn’t done or can’t do? If you answer no to all of those questions, then you probably should leave the flute out of your rock song.

Another song that I liked was Ride My See-Saw, which was basically a solid rock song with vocal harmonies, that reminded me of surf rock. House of Four Doors and House of Four Doors (Part 2) were similar, but slower.

A few songs on the record had a bit of Indian style instrumentation, but the most interesting was Om, which was heavily Hindustani with sitar (but still with unnecessary flute). I would not exactly say that it was a great song, but it did feel exploratory.

Dr. Livingstone, I Presume, an Oompa Loompa song that also would have qualified as Faul’s granny shit, was the worst.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Days of Future Passed by The Moody Blues (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Days of Future Passed
  • Group name: The Moody Blues
  • Year: 1967
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Deram Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written inside album, indicating that my father owned it
  • Buy it on Amazon: $19.98

Days of Future Passed by The Moody Blues

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve reviewed three Moody Blues records:

I’ve had mixed feelings about them, generally enjoying the musicality and overall sound of the songs, but disliking the attempts to show their audience just how weird they can be.

What I expected

Progressive rock… with an orchestra.

What it was actually like

The weird narrator from other Moody Blues records made an appearance on this one, but mercifully he didn’t stick around for long. Remind me why a prog rock record needs narration in the first place?

I had a hard time deciding whether or not I liked the overall use of the orchestral style instrumentation. For most of the record I leaned towards saying that it wasn’t good, but the last song was The Night (including Nights in White Satin), which did actually tie it together quite well, and that tipped me back towards saying that I liked the sound. But it did not work universally, and the awful narrator returned at the end, which was bad.

Besides that, there were parts that sounded like children’s music (a critique that I made yesterday about Ramblin’ Boy by Tom Paxton), and other parts (I think on Lunch Break: Peak Hour) sounded like musical theater. Musical theater! On a rock record!

Then immediately after that, it suddenly sounded like a pretty sweet mid 1960s rock song, sort of a British invasion answer to surf rock.

The more I listen to Nights in White Satin, the more I think it’s a masterpiece, and also that I just think it’s grand because it’s the best song that the Moody Blues ever recorded.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour by The Moody Blues (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
  • Group name: The Moody Blues
  • Year: 1971
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Threshold Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written on top left of album, indicating that my father owned this record
  • Buy it on Amazon: $9.89

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour by The Moody Blues

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve previously reviewed two Moody Blues records: On The Threshold of a Dream and a compilation called This Is The Moody Blues. My general impression is that they had some good parts, but that the self conscious weirdness (“Space Oddity vibes”) detracted significantly from the overall experience.

What I expected

More progressive rock with Space Oddity vibes.

What it was actually like

That was basically right, and Procession, the opening track, was exactly what I meant; it would be difficult for me to imagine a dumber song than this. One More Time to Live must have been their attempt to do that: it’s an attempt to see how many words they can rhyme with “Desolation” (answer: a lot).

The Story in Your Eyes, however, is about as good as progressive rock gets: coherent, rhythmic and melodic, and with a guitar riff that evokes the Allman Brothers (or something) – which is far better than Our Guessing Game, which I kept thinking was about to turn into Somewhere Over the Rainbow (and not the ukulele version by that extraordinarily large Polynesian fellow on youtube, but rather the version you remember from “The Wizard of Oz”).

Emily’s Song was familiar to me, though I don’t think this is the version I’ve heard in the past, and very Beatlesque.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

On The Threshold of a Dream by The Moody Blues (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: On The Threshold of a Dream
  • Group name: The Moody Blues
  • Year: 1969
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Deram records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written inside album sleeve, indicating that my father owned this record
  • Buy it:

On the Threshold of a Dream by The Moody Blues

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I listened to a Moody Blues compilation a few weeks ago, and thought it was all right, but not really impressive or memorable.

What I expected

Progressive rock with Space Oddity vibes.

What it was actually like

This record had some of the same stuff that I disliked from the previous one. In particular, In the Beginning and The Dream were really annoying and I don’t get the point of them at all.

On the other hand, I thought the quality of the actual songs was quite strong. Lovely to See You and Never Comes the Day were both great, and Lazy Day was also pretty good.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

This Is The Moody Blues by The Moody Blues (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: This Is The Moody Blues
  • Group name: The Moody Blues
  • Year: 1974
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: BMI
  • Collection: Selman
  • Buy it:

This Is The Moody Blues by The Moody Blues

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

The only Moody Blues song that I know I can name is Nights in White Satin, because it’s been in so many movies and television programs, and played so much on the radio. I’m sure I know other Moody Blues songs as well, without realizing it.

What I expected

Progressive rock.

What it was actually like

Before listening to this, I definitely expected to come out of it as a Moody Blues fan, but having just finished listening, now I can see why I never was a fan. Much of the record seemed to be channeling the Beatles consciously, but only the weirdest and worst tendencies of the Beatles, rather than their superior work from the mid 1960s.

I also got some Space Oddity vibes from the Moody Blues a few times, and a couple of songs had a weird science fiction narrator voice that definitely did not belong. Ride My See Saw was good, Nights in White Satin was as remembered, and I also recognized Tuesday Afternoon.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me