Moody Blues
Strange Times

What the hell has happened to The Moody Blues? The band that created such ground breaking albums as Days of Future Passed and On the Threshold of a Dream, has not only lost their focus, but also their desire to create. Oh, this isn’t really news, since the seeds for the band’s nosedive were first sown after the departure of Mike Pinder. The band managed to churn out one more outstanding effort -- 1981’s Long Distance Voyager -- but have since settled for album after album of overly dramatic love songs. Unfortunately, their latest effort Strange Times finds the group continuing to barrel down this pathway of soap opera delirium.

There is a glimmer of hope for the group, albeit a small one, that lies in the album’s closing track -- Nothing Changes. The Graeme Edge-penned poem finds the band standing at the precipice of the pending millennium and looking back at their career. They reference their early songs, including A Simple Game -- one of the first compositions Pinder contributed to the group. Perhaps The Moody Blues know how far they have fallen. It’s just a shame that they can’t seem to stop the slide.

The rest of Strange Times further proves that these veteran cosmic rockers have turned into veteran lovelorn lounge singers. To their credit, the band does explore some moderately interesting musical territory, and guitarist Justin Hayward tosses in a few more solos than usual. However, most of the songs on this disc are dragged to the bottom of the muck by the God-awful lyrics that are much more in-tune with Celine Dion’s pathetic chest-pounding antics than the Moody’s classic soul-searching affirmations.  ½

1 Star:   Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!