REVIEW: Moody Blues, Strange Times (Universal)
- Don Share
The 90's are strange times: new Moody Blues albums, Pink Floyd and Roger Waters tours...even Procol Harum reunions! While neo-prog and neo-psych bands abound, from Spock's Beard and Monster Magnet to Gorky's Zygotic Mynci and Super Furry Animals, the prototypes still walk, scarily, among us. Is the magic still here, or did you have to be there in the late '60's and early '70's?
Well, don't expect any trippy effects or lyrics about Timothy Leary being dead on Strange Times, because this album resembles its more recent predecessors, like Octave more than the early classic, and classically inspired efforts. Featuring synth programming and other bells and whistles from the entertainingly-named Danilo Madonia, who replaces Patrick Moraz (who replaced Mike Pinder), this is a more mellow than mellotron Moodies lineup.
The opener, "English Sunset," sounds promising, with hints of melancholy and large doses of tea-for-the-vicar local color, or should I say "colour." But like most of what is to come, and despite Justin Hayward's still-honeyed voice and guitar, it seems pleasantly indistinct. While there are songs by the rest of the band here, much of this is almost a Hayward solo album. That is, he bears much of the singing and songwriting burden, and the music sounds more Moodies-related than like the band of yore.
Many of the songs are nominally love songs about how you can't stay in the past, and the lyrics reflect an obvious message from the band that they ought not be held to the old days either: "It's time that we moved on/Into a new tomorrow," goes John Lodge's "Wherever You Are;" and "It was beautiful, glorious/We were riding a wave," says Hayward's "Foolish Love," and so on.
But while the album seldom sounds more than nice, and the songs generally range, as ever, from catchy to highly orchestrated, it is less fluent than we might hope for. The transition from the Age of Aquarius to the Internet Age is awkwardly reflected in a line from "Sooner Or Later (Walkin' On Air)": "So take a walk in the sunshine/Send a message on your online." Even Graeme Edge's requisite recital, the not-necessarily-true "Nothin Changes," sounds heavy, a bit tired. The title song decries "temples of greed," and we want to resist the idea that the album was put out for profit, not art's sake, despite the ads for merchandise lurking behind the CD tray.
There are some lovely moments, notably Hayward's "The Swallow," a cousin to Paul McCartney's "Blackbird." And John Lodge's voice is as lonely and appealing as ever. But Pinder is missed, and he's not all that's missing.
The Moody Blues used to have detractors who complained about portentous lyrics and magesterial, non-rock musical arrangements, but the band was always serious and reflective, not just sweet.
What it boils down to is that if you have all the albums, and the boxsets, and the Red Rocks video, and will catch them when they tour - that is, if you want to be chilled out, instead of far out - you will enjoy Strange Times. But if you miss the old days, well, stick with the old albums, the likes of which will never be made again.
