DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED

The first album post-mid-60's album by Moody Blues is also the most ambitious and progressive one. Little commercial interest, abundance of symphonic passages, fantastic vocals and emotions. It sounded futuristic in the year of release and sounds quite dated today. Take example of "The day beings" - what was of historical rock importance before seems a bit dull nowadays as it does not bring anything now. "The dawn: dawn is a feeling" has a calming and rich orchestral instrumentation well suiting lyrical voice by Hayward. "The morning: another morning" sounds uplifting, refreshing with flutes, mellotron and marching rhythm. Moodies also show their vocal harmonies capabilities. The melody is rather simple but documents the lightness of the song. "Lunch break" starts disappointingly similar to the previous composition but after two minutes, thankfully, a fresh 60's Mersey beat kicks in with typical rock outfit and refreshing mellotron. Pay attention to soaring vocals in a mellow section with organ or mellotron behind. The combination of mellotron and rock ensemble is pretty progressive.

"The afternoon" is one of the most haunting song by MB, a great melody, tons of mellotron, good use of rhythm piano. The second part is a baroque-pop oriented ("(Evening) Time to get away") with very nice melodies. Falsetto vocals would be unthinkable from a serious rock band but MB have no problem with that. Beatles' moments with piano and horn enrich the flow.

"The evening" is a playful orchestral intermezzo. Lush melody highlighted by cellos and spiraling flute with hypnotic beats, specially mixed vocal. "Twilight time" is a great melancholy song, lovely arrangements. Innovative vocals, busy bass guitar colouring, love also the semi rock'n'roll piano.

The last song is the irresistible and immortal "Nights in white satin" - attention fully deserved.

This work has its undeniable place among the collection of 60's shaping albums.