The Moody Blues : Seventh Sojourn Threshold THS 7

Reviewed by P.F. O'Dea

Every Moody Blues album from "Days of Future Passed" onwards has been a puzzling mixture of banality on one hand, and aesthetically appealing no nonsense rock music on the other. "Seventh Sojourn" is no exception. Here we have a collection of what can best be described as classy muzak, sandwiched between two of the best tracks the group has recorded.

Mike Pinder's "Lost in a lost world" is one of the better cuts, a put down of violent revolution, introduced by a measured drum beat ("angry people in the street/are telling them they've had their full of politics/that wound and kill. . . revolution never won/it's just another form of gun), as well as a study of be widerment in the face of the cosmic dilemma : "Everywhere you go you'll see them smiling/ Everywhere you turn you'll feel the pain/ everyone is looking for the answer". Perhaps their refusal to do nothing positive could have something to do with their predicament. The lyric soars above an ethereal string backing which, in comparison with the rest of the album, is tastefully restrained. The six songs between this and the last number are characterised by well executed lush string arrangements which are too prominent in the final mix and swamp the lead and rhythm instruments.

The descent into triteness starts with "For my Lady" in which the forced vocal mannerisms and a clumsy lyric combine to weigh down the flimsy song structure. A short, saccharine instrumental interlude leads into "Isn't life strange", the hands down winner in the slush stakes. Somehow the group has contrived to extend each of three rhyming words (strange, page, arrange) to four syllables, thus: str-ay-ay-nge, pay-ay-ay-ge, arr-rr-rr-gh It simply doesn't work, and the clumsiest example of over-orchestration on the whole album completely destroys the entire track.

"New Horizons" is the song most directly related to the album title and concept, but even then an air of uncertainty pervades. "Where is this place that we have found/nobody knows where we are bound", a gently fuzzed acoustic guitar starts it off and what would have been a very effective backing fights the Mantovani schmaltz all the way. The harmonies and the steel-edged electric guitar runs alleviate the excruciating experience.

Relief is on the way in the form of the final number "I'm just a singer (in a rock and roll band") which starts at a frantic pace with the drums and bass laying a pulsing foundation for a driving guitar and an insanely good piano. When the electric guitar makes an entrance it adds to the momentum rather than hindering it. This time the strings lose. The lyric asks a pertinent question: "How can we understand/riots by the people/for the people/ who are only destroying themselves" Rather than answer it they say we don't know, "We're just the singers in a rock and roll band". Coincidentally, this track was also released as a single.

Throughout both sides a disquieting sense of deja vu is evoked by the reemployment of certain excerpts which have appeared on previous Moody Blues' records. A flute riff from "In Search of the Lost Chord", crops up as does an acoustic guitar run from "Question" and an electric guitar break transposed from "On the Threshold of a Dream". It's almost as if the group, acknowledging their paucity of musical ideas, have decided to crib others from earlier albums in an attempt to inflate their cult following in America, most of which is only familiar with "Days of Future Passed", "In Search of the Lost Chord" and "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour".