ON THE THRESHOLD OF A DREAM

When I first the album, the beginning was something magical. It still is. Probably the most amazing introduction of an album. The spacey eletronic sound on a VCS3 (which was pretty new, showing that the Moodies were on the top of their game in terms of innovation), followed by the heavenly mellotron sound, giving it the impression of the creation of the universe, an epiphany, I don't know. Of course, the lyrics are pretty corny, but it is pretty progressive with the electronic sounds and all, and then...

A collection of run-of-the-mill tunes, with a mix of everything that was fashionable in the late sixties except from prog and not much psychedelic. We have some bits of blues, folk, beat, country, garage rock, soul. The flute and mellotron give a little flair for some tunes, but most of the arrangements are a bit shy even compared to Moody Blues standards. One of the best things in those songs is to see the talents of the underrated guitarist Justin Hayward moving between the most different styles with flawless execution.

Of course, it is not only that, because there is the latest suite, which is a great song with spoken word poem, this time over electronic sounds, a beautiful ballad and the amazing The Voyage, which is the most grandiose thing done by a band not augmented by orchestral arrangements. It is ironic that such amazing song is in one of their less daring albums. That would be a feature that would kinda repeat itself in all their latter albums, unfortunately.

WIth its ups and downs, it is still a great late 60s album.