EVERY GOOD BOY DESERVES FAVOUR

The Moodies got that "back to basics" impulse out of their system on A Question of Balance, and then steered right back to their more maximalist approach on the followup. If Question was all about turning out songs which the band could reproduce in a similar manner on stage, Favour is all about extensively using the possibilities of the recording studio to take the listener on a journey that a stage show would (especially at the time) struggle to reproduce.

We kick off with Procession, a tour of all of time and the entire world in under five minutes, before we get right into that particular Moody blend of prog-pop with the charming The Story In Your Eyes. From here on out you get the usual blend of psychedelic-influenced pop and the accessible end of symphonic prog which the Moodies made their stock in trade.

They might have been far away from the cutting edge of prog - this came out the same year as Nursery Cryme, Tarkus, and The Yes Album, and it feels like Every Good Boy Deserves Favour is looking back to the 1960s more than any of those albums do. Nonetheless, if you loved the run of albums from In Search of the Lost Chord or To Our Children's Children's Children - when they had hit on their classic sound and genuinely were at the forefront of the progressive movement - then this provides more of that.