KEYS OF THE KINGDOM

So sad to look back at the past and see what it all became of the best rock band ever (in my humble opinion) in music history. After firing Patrick Moraz, the (once) quintet will get reduced to a duo, with two swansongs by Ray Thomas, here and then in 8 years time, with the album 'Strange Times'. The Moraz issue being one big enough to lead to a litigation which turned to a TV highlight in the USA in 1992. So the album was recorded during tumultuous times, which shows in how disjointed and full of ups and downs the very album is.

Not that this is a bad album. No Moody Blues album is. But it's probably their weakest ever, perhaps along with 'December'. As some other reviewer appointed, there is no more room for innovation or risk here anymore. It is what I'd call "family rock". Songs charged with charm and sweetness, stepping carefully into the safe realm, and, if only, endulging themselves sparsely into weird realms like funk or synth pop, going even further than in the dreadful 'The Other Side of Life'.

Bless the Wings (That Take You Back) shines here like snow under sunlight when compared to the rest of the songs. This ballad is easily amongst the five best tracks of their last five albums, which isn't saying a lot, but I find the intro and the sublime feel of the whole song a very good reason for giving one more star to this album. Justin's voice sounds even more angelic than ever, and the synths and guitars sound clear and trendy in a song of devoted love and respect. An absolute masterpiece of a song.

Say It With Love is not a bad song or a bad intro to the album but, speaking about album openers it is definetely the blandest and less blissful since 1981, keeping in mind every album openers were all fantastic up 'till then. It has the trademark positive Moodies feeling but lacks something. Probably true excitement.

After Is This Heaven , a song that portrays a sense of charm and tenderness you can only find in a Moody Blues album, we get into the loophole which takes us down into the lowest minutes in the Moody Blues collection, along with a few tracks in 'The Other Side of Life'. Say What You Mean l & ll repeats senselessly the same phrase over and over along with a collection of tacky synth brass sounds that never worked in a single Moodies song - apart from Under My Feet from 'The Present'. Definetely if I would have been their producer in this album I would have locked access to those sounds and suggest them a greater use of acoustic guitars. That would have made a change. Anyway, the song is catchy and dynamic, specially on its first half.

Lean on Me (Tonight) is a beautiful, sentimental ballad by John Lodge, with a nice almost-reggae rythm to it, and salvages the quality ratio of first side of the album as a decent one.

After the turn of the L.P. (I bought it in 1991, thrilled in the shop but dissapointed at home when I gave it a few listens) appears the song which should legit be the opener of the album. Hope and Pray is a wonderful, eighties sounding, but mature and intelligent, fast song with all the heart I was missing on Say It With Love . Should it have had a bit of a developed intro and a bit more production, it would have been a serious competitor amongst the extraordinary openers of the otherwise low notched former albums. The song has "the voice", the wonderful guitar solo and other values that put it up in the album podium after Bless the Wings (That Take You Back) .

The low begins from now on. Shadows on the Wall sounds unconvincing and starts signalling the weakness of John Lodge's input on the subsequent Moodies album (four dull ballads on 'Strange Times') with a sense of apathy which comes in consonance with the lyrics. When John sings "if only I didn't lose you, if only we could be" I hear "I began to lose control, I began to lose control" from John Lennon's Jealous Guy . Not that it's bad. That sense of dramaticism in the singing is probably the best value in the song, not very remarkable otherwise. Once is Enough is one of those songs, three or four located in 'The Other Side of Life' whose title my mind refuses to even remember. Not much to say about a song that for me represents an utter void of inspiration and sense of direction.

And then appears the "missing boy", Ray Thomas, who, as he did in 'Long Distance Voyager' and 'The Present' makes us feel he deserves much more room for his compositions in this album. The lost direction after the last track finds the right position of the steering wheel again with the beautiful and sky-wide ballad Celtic Sonant . Bringing long gone echoes from past harbour canticles like For My Lady or Lazy Day , here he restraints the pace and brings us a gorgeous, spiritual chant that leaves the songs around it in the mud. What a shame in the last two decades of studio work from the Moodies his appearances are so intermittent and scarce. He would have brought a lot of light to a lot of void. Celtic music was treding at that time, but the very slow pace and profoundity of lyrics and melody leaves that as less than an anecdote. The third in the album podium.

Magic continues with a promising acoustic guitar intro, but then disappoints from the dismal opening drum fill (sounds like played by a fiddling unexperienced child) to the anticlimatic, predictable verse, the forced chorus and a bridge which is an unthinkable mashup of bebop, American brass blues band kind of thing and on the top of it a sax solo which says definite goodbye to any expectations of tasting any of those good old Moodies' atmospheric, heartfelt and tuneful wonderful suites which used to close the albums in such an epic way.

Never Blame the Rainbows For the Rain is a lovely ballad with a nostalgic and sad feeling that mends a lot for the end of the album, and almost seems to acknowledge the long gone days are behind, but in a nice and honest way. Not being a great song, the understated singing and beautiful lyrics make up a nice closing seal for this work.

A work which maybe would have benefitted from three (impossible) things:

1 more presence of Ray Thomas,

2 being fair to Patrick Moraz (who signed with the Moodies in the condition of being a member of the band, fact later denied by the other members in a very dodgy way) and letting him paint the songs with his wonderful keyboards in the fashion he did on 'Voyager' and 'Present'

3 and giving it a more folky, less synth-pop focus. This last move somehow they tried on their 1999 'Strange Times' with relative success, but sadly since the 80s reunion on, the spark of the band drained gradually, maybe caused by loss of inspiration, band politics and commercial demands never met.

But never blame the rainbows for the rain. Although in this case, it's the other way around. Sadly.

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