Octave, Long Distance Voyager, The Present, The Other Side of Life and Sur La Mer sold well to spectacular. How do these later Moody's album rate with the help of one Patrick Moraz, on keys, after Octave?
Octave, Long Distance Voyager, The Present, The Other Side of Life and Sur La Mer sold well to spectacular. How do these later Moody's album rate with the help of one Patrick Moraz, on keys, after Octave?
Last edited by StevegSr; 02-17-2016 at 04:07 PM.
To be or not to be? That is the point. - Harry Nilsson.
I came a bit late to The Moody's as "Long Distance Voyager" is the album where I discovered them. I still think it is one of their best. "The Present" and "Other Side Of Life" have their moments, but were a slight step down IMO.
Octave is the last gasp of the classic lineup, but pales compared to the earlier albums. That said, it has several good songs on it so is safe for fans or completists.
Of the 80s albums I've only been able to warm to The Present. LDV has some good tracks on it but is bit too formulaic for me. Plus, they seem to have a bad case of Jeff Lynn/Electric Light Orchestra-itis on that one.
The less said about The Other Side of Life the better, as far as I'm concerned.
And as for Moraz, it could have been anyone playing keys for them. I'm sure he was happy to collect the paychecks during his tenure, but it was a shame he wasn't really given a chance to be a full contributing member.
I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.
Second tier, which is better than many top-tier releases of other bands.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
I think Moraz brought life to the Moodies on Long DIstance Voyager---and gave life to a band that was dragging and borderline boring. His playing is lively and energetic and don't think any keyboardist could do that---Especially live. He did the same for Yes in a different way but still giving the band a shot in the arm---just like the Moodies. I love Moraz I just wish his music had stayed as vibrant as his first few solo albums.
In no order:
Keys to the Kingdom D
The Present C-
Long Distance Voyager A-
The Other side of life C+
Sur La Mer C
I haven't heard Strange Times or Octave and I am not familiar enough with "December" to comment.
I rather like Octave, but nothing much after that.
Are there synthesizers on Octave or was Mike Pinder still using only the mellotron and organ?
Octave- B-
Long Distance Voyager- A++++
The Present- C+
The Other Side Of Life- B
Sur La Mer- B-
Keys To The Kingdom- C+
after that i gave up.
Long Distance Voyager is a must have.
All of the moody blues albums up to Sur La Mer all sell for about $2.00 each at my local music shop in good used condition and I can pick up all of them at any time as they have several copies of most of albums listed
I always liked Octave but it has not stood the test of time and only has a couple tunes that stand out.
Long distance V was the best one and was the only album that I can tell that Moraz is even playing on a couple of tunes. It reminds me of the classic 70's line-up...I love 22000 days and The voice.. The album contained really the last spoken word song if I remember correctly.
I expected more with each album after but alas it was a slow decline in quality ending with I know your out there somewhere as a last gasp of air.....not a bad album but to me was the last nail in the coffin.
I saw the moody blues several times live in the early to mid 80's and they were good but they often repeated the same classic songs mixed with a few new songs from the latest release and a song or two from a previous 80's release. After seeing them 3 times with moraz I was satisfied and had my fill.
+1Originally Posted by flowerking
Agree with all the love for Long Distance Voyager - IMO the only one worth seeking out.
I have The Present on tape, and honestly, it was not until track 8 or so, "Running Water" that I found a song that made me think of the classic Moody Blues I liked so much.
"The Other Side of Life" has the title track, which is not bad, and that's about it.
I found some things to like in the first 3 Moraz /Moodies albums but only first one was really good. The other two were ok but had a lot of clunkers.
Justin Hayward and Ray Thomas have amazing voices, ones that I don't get tired of listening to. So I will pick up the infrequent MB album when it is released. I think the Moodies, like many older bands have an audience and a sound, which is good and bad. Good that in most cases the album will be enjoyable to their core fans. The fan pretty much knows what it will sound like before hearing it. Bad because they no longer take risks. If they lose a fan they are gone and they are not picking up new ones at this stage of the game. JJ88 and others have called it their safe period and I agree. All of the albums from Octave on have some very good tracks on them. All except Long Distance Voyager have non-memorable tracks too. Here is my take:
Octave- B- . A bit of a disappointment but good to see them together again
Long Distance Voyager- A+ A great album
The Present- B. Pretty good album with a couple of excellent tracks
The Other Side Of Life- C+ . Contains the only co-composition by Moraz, a forgettable track.
Sur La Mer- B- TOSOL and SLM together and pruned of the fat would have made a real good album. I made a tape that way back then.
Keys To The Kingdom- C+. One of those albums that you want it to be better, but after a few listens you realize it isn't . Moraz' last album, he is only on a handful of tracks and it could have been anybody.
Strange Times - C - Thanks for trying but after 8 years, hoping for a little more.
December B- . The Moodies do Christmas and do it pretty well. Several of the tracks are written outside of the group.
Back to the original question, LDV used PM a lot with pretty much each album after using him less and less. Probably a case where everyone thinks they can play keyboards, but the reality is either they don't play very well or in the Moodies in the latter years, they were not given the space needed.
The 2nd disc of their Anthology does a pretty good job of covering this period, I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthol...y_Blues_album) (the cover is different on what I have)
None of them. Music with an edge had changed dramatically by 1978 and the Moodies were seriously outdated...
I'm with the majority here: Long Distance Voyager is a must have. The rest are meh to me.
The Prog Corner
I have to agree on this, and except for DoFP and arguably ISotLC I find their earlier discog quite flawed as well - as in "generally highly uneven albums but with some phenomenal tracks on them".
I once owned about a dozen Moodies albums, but I've only kept two.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
This all pretty relative IMO, as far as music is concerned , one man's outdated music can be another man's exceptional music. Personally I would add 71's EGBDF to those exceptions, and 'My Song', though not earth shattering it's one of the stand out Moodies tracks, ever, and I would even say as much as most of their music.
"Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth. ". Ludwig van Beethoven
I have never gotten into EGBDF beyond 'The Story In Your Eyes' (notably, the only song which ever seems to appear on their compilations) and 'My Song'. The other 6 of those 1967-72 albums are excellent, save the dodgy narration, of course!
Mike Pinder - vocals, organ, synthesizer, Mellotron, piano, keyboards
I feel the same about EGBDF. The opening/Story In Your Eyes is excellent; the rest of the album does not quite live up to this standard, though I always did like Emily's Song. I've never been all that fond of Ray Thomas' brand of whimsy, and Nice to Be Here is a case in point; it just has an annoying nursery-rhyme sound about it. On the other hand I love Ray Thomas' closing suite on Long Distance Voyager.
Well, admittedly I'd rather say that EGBDF lacks the intensity that I find in DOFP and ISOTLC, and that's one of the main reasons why 'My Song' is pretty much on another standard from the rest of that album for me, it exhales intensity.
Last edited by Rick Robson; 02-18-2016 at 02:37 PM.
"Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth. ". Ludwig van Beethoven
The only Ray Thomas song I'm dubious about is 'For My Lady'...largely down to the backing vocals, which push it the wrong side of schmaltz.
The major problem with most of these later albums for me is that they did not really replace Mike Pinder with another songwriter. Pinder's material was generally their most adventurous, and he also added an enormous amount to the arrangements of the other songs.
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