DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED

1967 was indeed a very important year where the first roots of progressive rock music would take shape. Not only did we get a few important summer releases like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn but also a completely unexpected entry by the Moody Blues with Days Of Future Passed, towards its end!

This early concept album with orchestral music arrangements is easily one of the top 3 most important Proto-Prog releases and listening to it today I can clearly see why it is so. Even though Days Of Future Passed has never been a huge personal favorite of mine, since I have no personal attachment to this music, I still consider it a worthy participant of my album collection. Listening to it today did give me an added sense of affection for its material, especially sections like Dawn and The Morning which I carelessly managed to overlook, while giving the advantage to the material on side two. What surprises me the most is how much the band's style had changed since their debut album, merely 2 year prior to this release. Gone were almost all the R&B roots and what we've got instead was early symphonic rock at its best!

The great material is what keeps this album afloat for me and the 8 minute The Afternoon is where it reaches its peak. This two song medley includes Tuesday Afternoon and (Evening) Time To Get Away, is easily the catchiest material off the whole record! Nights In White Satin concludes the album with a hefty portion of Mellotron sound that should please Symphonic Prog fans, but even though the melody and lyrics are very memorable it fails to become my obvious favorite out of all the album's highlights.

Days Of Future Passed was a huge step forward in rock music's history and even though it has been overshadows by dozen of other important releases from that highly influential year of 1967, we the prog community are not likely to forget its credentials any time soon!

***** star songs: The Afternoon (8:23)

**** star songs: Dawn (3:49) The Morning (3:56) Lunch Break (5:29) Evening (6:40) The Night (7:39)

*** star songs: The Day Begins (5:51)