ON THE THRESHOLD OF A DREAM

"On The Threshold Of A Dream" is the 4th full-length studio album by UK progressive rock act The Moody Blues. The album was released through Deram Records in April 1969. It was the first album by the band to reach #1 in the British album charts and to enter top 20 in the American album chart. A huge commercial success for The Moody Blues although the only single released from the album "Never Comes the Day" turned out to be a commercial flop.

The music on the album continues in the same style that the band initiated on "In Search of the Lost Chord (1968)". Relatively simple structured pop/rock songs with additional progressive features like flute and mellotron, and layered arrangements. The most progressive moment on the album is probably the ending three piece suite ("Have You Heard? Pt. 1, The Voyage and Have You Heard? Pt. 2") which is one of the highlights of the album. But most of the tracks on the album are of a high compositional quality albeit sometimes a little too polihed, sweet, and nice.

"On The Threshold Of A Dream" opens with the experimental intro track "In the Beginning", which is a sound collage type track with a poem being read on top, but the listener is treated to one of the more rock oriented tracks right after in "Lovely to See You", and then follows the mellow, beautiful, and slightly psychadelic tinged "Dear Diary". So the album opens with a nice varied trio of tracks, which all bring a lot to the table. Unfortunately the quality drops immediately after that with the uneventful and uplifting "Send Me No Wine", which sounds like something written in 1963/1964. The same can be said about "To Share Our Love", although that track feautures much more interesting guitar playing. The Mike Pinder penned "So Deep Within You" is more interesting and features a nice orchestral arrangement, flute, and great guitar work.

Listening to "Never Comes the Day" it´s obvious why it wasn´t a successful single, because it´s not the most immedately catchy track and it´s not the greatest track on "On The Threshold Of A Dream" either. "Lazy Day" is a mellow and innocent little song. Some nice chorus arrangements and vocal melodies on that track. "Are You Sitting Comfortably?" is another mellow but this time melancholic sounding track, with great acoustic guitar playing and flute melodies. The vocals melodies are very well written on this one to. The short "The Dream" (a shorter and alternate version of "In the Beginning") functions as a bridge to the above mentioned three piece suite of "Have You Heard? Pt. 1, The Voyage and Have You Heard? Pt. 2". A great progressive piece of music, which fully justifies The Moody Blues reputation as a progressive rock act, although they actually seldom flaunted those tendencies.

"On The Threshold Of A Dream" features a warm, organic, and very well sounding production job, which suits the material perfectly. Other than a few less remarkable tracks it´s a strong, varied, and intriguing album from start to finish, the closing three piece suite being the icing on the cake. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.