A QUESTION OF BALANCE

The whole thing to me is a big ''question'' without much ''balance''.

A QUESTION OF BALANCE is nothing more than a straightforward Moody Blues album (some may argue that the Moodies are generally straightforward). For some reason, I feel the songwriting is starting to tire, notably on ''It's Up to You'', a Justin Hayward track that sounds like an amalgamation of his previous songs (reminds me of ''Voices in the Sky'' and ''Lovely to See You''). Pretty much all of side B sounds too monotonous with only ''Melancholy Man'' and ''The Balance'' being reasonably fair to my ears (although the spoken word stuff on ''The Balance'' is laughable).

Side A is the better of the two, particularly because one of the strongest overall Moody Blues songs, ''Question'', starts it off. The rapid fire acoustic guitar never sounded better and the bass playing has rarely been better on other Moodies works. The remainder of the side is decent, but not much to speak of with the exception of the haunting ''Don't You Feel Small'' and the groovy ''Tortoise and the Hare''.

This Moodies album sounds a little too weak, especially compared to the classic albums of the earlier years e.g. DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED. You really can't call yourself a Moody Blues fan until you've heard ''Question'', but the album isn't really necessary for any collection. Good enough for three stars, but just barely.