DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED

Days of Future Passed takes a little while to get started. The album begins with a four-minute orchestral piece, and the first real "song" doesn't start until more than six minutes into the record. And the first two songs on the first side, "Dawn is a Feeling" and "Another Morning," are relatively weak. But side ends on a strong note with "Peak Hour."

Side Two begins with "The Afternoon," from which the classic single "Tuesday Afternoon" was culled. "Tuesday Afternoon," written and sung by guitarist Justin Hayward, is among the most recognizable Moody Blues songs, and is here paired with bassist John Lodge's "(Evening) Time to Get Away," a catchy little number which, as far as I can tell, was never released as a single anywhere. This is followed by two more single-worthy songs by two more members of the band: keyboardist Mike Pinder's eastern-tinged "The Sunset" and Twilight Time" by flautist Ray Thomas. Both are parts of the "Evening" suite.

And finally comes "The Night," the majority of which is Hayward's majestic "Nights in White Satin." This is a rare song that is a legitimate pop classic and an equally legitimate progressive-rock classic. Its message and melody are as timeless as that of, say, "Dust in the Wind," but its execution is much more "progressive." And while many prog classics ("Close to the Edge" "2112," "In the Court of the Crimson King," etc.) are expertly composed, produced, and performed, few have the universality of "Nights in White Satin."

The Moody Blues are rightly congratulated for taking risks with this album. But not every experiment on Days of Future Passed is an unqualified success. The orchestral pieces mostly serve as bridges between suites or songs. For these, arranger/conductor Peter Knight, who is billed on the album cover and receives a few co-composition credits, often picks the hokiest motifs from the Moodies' melodies for the orchestral passages. His work throughout "The Night," though, is a substantial exception. Here the orchestra and the orchestration seem like integral components of the track.

The other innovation which quite doesn't work (for me, at least) is the poetry recitations. I can deal with some pretentiousness - - this is art rock, after all - - when the content is of high quality. But that's not the case here. Although nicely performed by Pinder, the poetry itself doesn't justify its inclusion as the bookends of the album. Interestingly, the band swore off the use of an orchestra after Days of Future Passed but continued with the poetry. In my opinion, the orchestra had some promise and, of the two, might have been the one to continue experimenting with.

Anyway, in the grander scheme, these are mild annoyances. Days of Future Passed is certainly a package deal, and the orchestra and poetry are part of the package. More importantly, the album is well produced, the sound is generally very good given the available technologies, and the compositions are very good. There are eight Moody Blues songs on Days of Future Passed, and after two relatively pedestrian offerings is a string of six very strong songs: "Peak Hour" → "Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)" / "(Evening) Time To Get Away" → "The Sunset" / "Twilight Time" → "Nights In White Satin."

Some might call Days of Future Passed a "flawed masterpiece," but I think that's misguided on two counts. First of all, it's not a "flawed" album at all. It has imperfections and a couple of feeble songs, but not fundamental flaws. And secondly, it's a not a masterpiece. Its status as a document of substantial historical significance among prog-rock fans probably elevates the expectation of first-time listeners, but realistically, this album is a very good songs-cycle which happened to break new ground. From this perspective, Days of Future Passed is exceptionally cohesive despite having been strung together from relatively independent songs written by four different writers.

Four stars for an excellent proto-prog / psychedelic rock album.