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The Moody Blues Album: “A Question Of Balance”
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A Question Of Balance |
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Release Date:2008-08-13
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Type:Album
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Genre:Rock, Classic Rock, Mainstream Rock
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Label:Polydor
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Explicit Lyrics:No
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UPC:00600753066263
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Review - :
{$The Moody Blues}' first real attempt at a harder {\rock} sound still has some {\psychedelic} elements, but they're achieved with an overall leaner studio sound. The group was trying to take stock of itself at this time, and came up with some surprisingly strong, lean numbers ({$Michael Pinder}'s Mellotron is surprisingly restrained until the final number, {&"The Balance"}), which also embraced politics for the first time ({^Question of Balance} seemed to display the dislocation that a lot of younger listeners were feeling during Vietnam). The surprisingly jagged opening track, {&"Question,"} recorded several months earlier, became a popular concert number as well as a number two (or number one, depending upon whose chart one looks at) single. {$Graeme Edge}'s {&"Don't You Feel Small"} and {$Justin Hayward}'s {&"It's Up to You"} both had a great beat, but the real highlight here is {$John Lodge}'s {&"Tortoise and the Hare,"} a fast-paced number that the band used to rip through in concert with some searing guitar solos by {$Hayward}. {$Ray Thomas}' {&"And the Tide Rushes In"} (written in the wake of a fight with his wife) is one of the prettiest {\psychedelic} songs ever written, a sweetly languid piece with some gorgeous shimmering instrumental effects. The 1997 remastered edition brings out the guitar sound with amazing force and clarity, and the notes tell a lot about the turmoil the band was starting to feel after three years of whirlwind success. The only loss is the absence of the lyrics included in earlier editions. [The 2006 and 2008 reissues added a handful of alternate versions and different mixes of album tracks as well as a previously unreleased song ({&"Mike's Number One"}).] ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
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