LONG DISTANCE VOYAGER

I don't know why this album achieved critical acclaim. The songs are very average, apart from "In My World", which is a beautiful Justin Hayward ballad. The Voice has the makings of a reasonable Hayward rocker but the synths of Patrick Moraz are all wrong for it. In fact I find a disconnect between the pleasant ballads and rockers that The Moody Blues write and the keyboard style of Patrick Moraz. I also can't fathom why you would need to do a string arrangement for the John Lodge song, "Nervous" when you have an electronic mini-orchestra present in the form of Patrick Moraz. The best said about the three Ray Thomas songs that conclude the album is that as a song writer, Ray Thomas makes a very good flutist. As for the song that Graeme Edge wrote for this album, 22,000 Days, it might be fast and edgy, but it doesn't come close to say, Higher And Higher, from the To Our Children's Children's Children album. John Lodge is the only one in the band who can challenge Justin Hayward as a song writer but here he fails to add much life. However he has similar sensibilities to Justin Hayward, so makes a great foil as a contributory song writing partner.