Long Distance Voyager
1981
Decca Records
The eightieth decade of the 20th century was a bittersweet one for progressive rock music. Bands started to morph into those that easily conformed to the general demand, basically going opposite of what their genre would suggest them to be. In the midst of this change bands fell left and right, abandoning the artful essence they once had. Of all of them, however, one band remained slightly static. This band of course was The Moody Blues. It seemed with Octave that the band would follow this direction and, with their slight cheese that was present on every single one of their albums to date, that they would fall the hardest. This was funnily enough not the case.
You see, the Moodies were always pop-oriented. Their most popular albums had very innocent, tawdry songs that always had a large dollop of sophistication. Thus when the 80's made it's offer of synth-laden echoes with a cheeseball attitude, the Moodies took it and flourished. Thus, 1981's Long Distance Voyager was born, replete with fully painted cover. Hayward's airy warble is turned up to ten, background vocals get louder, and the orchestral mannerisms get more pronounced with help from The New World Philharmonic Orchestra. The floatier tones (mainly from the keyboard) on this album all sort of complement the band's penchant with the ideas of time and space, seen very clearly on this album. Like many other Moodies albums, the album is rather varied, featuring the cheesy ballads like 'Nervous', but also the groovier songs like '22,000 Days' and 'Veteran Cosmic Rocker'. My tastes for this album are generally the same as they are for other MB albums- the rockier songs are usually more enjoyable, but every song's subtle sense of refinement gives them each a unique charm.
This is doubtless one of the best prog albums in the 80's done by classic bands. The Moodies show great promise, and my only hope is the other albums of the decade from them are just as good as this.
2016 - The Frying Pan & Thatcher
Originally written for Prog Archives on 7/30/2016.
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