DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED

NOW!!!!! Here's where we get to hear the REAL Moody Blues. Before Genesis and David Bowie became famous for their styles of music, they both released some heavily reissued material which mostly comprised of short little silly pop songs. That's what The Moody Blues did before this album. Here, the band employed the London Festival Orchestra which was a magic touch to this album. Beginning and ending with a subtle, apocalyptic poem written (and probably recited) by Graeme Edge [the drummer], Days Of Future Passed is an album with a concept of a typical day in the life of a normal man. That is the precise reason these song titles are given the foretitles like "Dawn," "Morning" and "Lunch Break." This album also scored a pair of hits with Tuesday Afternoon (a.k.a. Forever Afternoon) and Nights In White Satin. After I played this album, I just couldn't wash those songs out of my brain. The playing alone also deserves discussing. The keyboards Mike Pinder plays almost crush every other keyboard sounds from other prog groups of the day (he even makes Tony Banks sound pitiful), the acoustic guitars are played fine and the flute also adds the true prog-rock sound that made Genesis, Jethro Tull and King Crimson great. The Moody Blues sure really knew how to start a great career and this was one album that they sure had a hard time matching its splendour.

Five stars for an album before its time.