Lisnaholic

^ Yes, I guess they do cross that line sometimes on Days of Future Passed, starrynight, but that album was probably their most innovative moment.
There`s some good music, but nothing innovative about Balance or Threshold; more a case of "Don`t mess with the formula", as Brian Wilson`s money-minded Dad used to tell BW.

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

starrynight

Well as I've said here a few times already I don't care if something is seen as innovative or not. One reason is that something might be innovative only if looked at in a narrow context, and my other reason is that if I don't think it is good music I still won't like it anyway. I still adore Tuesday Afternoon and Nights in White Satin from that album. But the other music just doesn't fit that well anyway to me and could easily have been taken from a bland film soundtrack.

And as for formulas, well all music has formulas but what matters is what is done with the formula that is used (how creative someone is). And I wouldn't accept they were just looking to make money with later albums, indeed I think they put quite different sounding songs on the same album. For instance on Threshold you have the country sounding Send Me No Wine, a more rnb rocker To Share Our Love and a progressive ballad Have You Heard and Question has the folk-like Minstrel's Song. Some of their later albums can sound a bit too dependant on production effects for me, but I think there is good songwriting on those two.

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Lisnaholic

^ Sorry, starrynight, I shouldn`t have been so dismissive about Threshold and Question; thinking about it, what Brian Wilson might have heard from his Dad really has no relevence at all to what the Moody Blues were doing.

^ In fact, this is how I usually feel about a piece of music, too. The important question is "Does this music sound good to me today?", not "Should I like this because it is historically significant ?"

Anyway, here are two Moody Blues tracks that always sound good to me. I wonder what your verdict is on them :-

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953