Release date: 17.08.1999
Label: Universal Records
Production: The Moody Blues
Length: 57:33
Genre: progressive rock
Rating: 4/10
By the time their fifteenth studio album “Strange Times” came out, prog rock pioneers The Moody Blues had to finally accept that they would never again write a big hit, and that they’d also lost every last spark of songwriting inspiration. They could console themselves with the fact that, in the late nineties, they were one of the last pioneering prog bands still going and still active in the studio, at a time when interest in experimental music among the more switched-on music fans, partly thanks to the internet, was starting to grow again.
Even though eight years had passed since the previous album “Keys of the Kingdom” (1991), they hadn’t come up with many fresh ideas in that time, apart from ditching the synthetic elements that had pretty thoroughly ‘killed’ their classic sound in the second half of the eighties. Acoustic arrangements were slowly creeping back into The Moody Blues’ sound, while flutist/singer Ray Thomas, for whom this was the last round with his old musical comrades, once again got more room for his songwriting ideas and flute arrangements, but most of the music on “Strange Times” was still closer to melodic rock than prog rock. The band’s final creative phase was dominated by simple, lovey-dovey AOR ballads like “Haunted,” which were occasionally dressed up in rather generic symphonic arrangements. Some of the blame surely lies with the absence of an official keyboardist, who could have helped out with the songwriting too.
All the keyboards on “Strange Times” were played by Italian session keyboardist Danilo Madonia, who was no keyboard wizard like his predecessors Mike Pinder and Patrick Moraz, even though he did his best to patch the huge hole in the sound that yawned open after Moraz left. The winning, strongly melodic vocal partnership between Justin Hayward and John Lodge, on the other hand, still saved most of the tracks from outright disaster and provided a certain sonic continuity and quality, even if the singing had lost some of its old verve and fire. Another plus was the end of the drum machine experiments and the return of Graeme Edge’s real drums, as he was once again a bit more active than on the previous few albums.
On the opener “English Sunset,” Madonia laid down unusually electronic-tinged synth textures that didn’t exactly fit well into the Moody sonic collage. Out of the fourteen “Strange Times” tracks, only a handful are worth a longer mention, and there are simply too many dull moments. Among the rare flashes of real inspiration, where at least a bit of the old ambient magic shines through, are the title track and “Sooner Or Later (Walkin’ On Air),” which after a long time featured three-part vocal harmonies between Hayward, Lodge and Thomas. As for any evergreens that could keep company with the best The Moody Blues achievements, well, that’s obviously no longer on the table.
On “Strange Times,” The Moody Blues finally showed their age as songwriters and arrangers. No wonder the sadly late Ray Thomas, who was already struggling with poor health back then, decided to retire from music in 2002. From here on, Hayward, Lodge and Edge managed just one more studio album, the rather superfluous and artistically empty Christmas experiment “December” (2003), which reflected an even more total lack of fresh ideas and a general fatigue in songwriting and arranging.
Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
- English Sunset (5:05)
- Haunted (4:31)
- Sooner Or Later (walkin’ On Air) (3:50)
- Wherever You Are (3:35)
- Foolish Love (3:56)
- Love Don’t Come Easy (4:33)
- All That Is Real Is You (3:33)
- Strange Times (4:29)
- Words You Say (5:31)
- My Little Lovely (1:45)
- Forever Now (4:37)
- The One (3:39)
- The Swallow (4:59)
- Nothing Changes (3:32)
The Moody Blues:
Justin Hayward – vocals, guitar
John Lodge – vocals, bass guitar, guitar
Ray Thomas – vocals, flute
Graeme Edge – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Guest musician:
Danilo Madona – keyboards
