ON THE THRESHOLD OF A DREAM

I heard THRESHOLD right at the height of when I was getting into the Moody Blues coming right after the euphoria of DAYS hit me and the psychedelics of LOST CHORD. Unfortunately at first listen, my appreciation of the group was halted; it sounded too much like plain pop.

The Graeme Edge bits are getting quite old at this point; I was never fond of them on either of their two previous attempts, but the starting track is just over-the-top ridiculous. I think it's supposed to represent that ethereal feeling in our mind that comes just before a dream, but the ''I think, therefore I am'' stuff might make Descartes rotate over his eternal x-axis.

It doesn't stop there; not one song that Lodge or Thomas contributed is pleasing to my ears, minus the ''Are You Sitting Comfortably?'' speck (but Thomas cowrote that with Hayward). ''Send Me No Wine'' has this annoying country-vibe to it and ''Dear Diary'' (I usually call it ''Dear Diarrhea'') is just flat out boring. Pinder's ''So Deep Within You'' also falls flat on its face as it tries to be macho-with-mellotron, whatever that means.

Pinder more than makes up for the first shortcoming with the ''Have You Heard'' suite at the end. The ''Have You Heard'' parts are the right kind of soft for me; gentle and delicate but without overdoing it. ''The Voyage'' is an instrumental breakup of the ''Have You Heard'' parts, and while it could sound boring at times, it mostly is quite nice and pastoral. Hayward's contributions are also strong, but they're more uptempo pop-rock than anything else; not ''Nights in White Satin'' caliber, but excellent given the other songs around them.

I find this as a grower of an album; sometimes you need a few bad dreams to get back into a good one. It doesn't hold a candle compared to its two predecessors, but it's not too degrading to the ears.

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