TO OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN'S CHILDREN

This album represents, for me, the Moodies at their creative peak. The songs are arresting, the vocals sublime and - like Kraftwerk's "RadioActivity" - it is one of the few concept albums that really works, rather than simply being a collection of vaguely thematically linked songs with a hit single and some below par filler thrown in for good measure. ( I'm looking at you, Pepper! ) In "Candle of Life" and "Watching & Waiting" the Moodies present their most accomplished and moving songs and while detractors often argue that the Moodies lyrics have a propensity to be toe-curling ( and it's usually lines like "Blasting, billowing, bursting forth with the power of 10 billion butterfly sneezes" they allude to ) it's hard to find such faults in a lyric of such simple existential honesty as "Something there outside says we're only / In the hands of time, falling slowly..." especially when delivered by THAT voice. The Mellotron playing is, of course, magnificent but it's also worth noting what an expressive guitarist Justin Hayward was and how he delivers such beautiful guitar phrases and solos ( particularly on "Eternity Road"and "Higher & Higher". I was born into a house full of Moody Blues fans and have, in turn, played them to my kids, who love them also. The cover art, particularly the inner sleeve, really fired my chidhood imagination and made a great soundtrack to gazing through a telescope, travelling eternity road with the Moodies.