Disco de The Moody Blues: “Playlist Plus [Circuit City Exclusive]”

The Moody Blues "Playlist Plus" features previously released material, mostly taken from the "Time Traveller" set.

For those of you who take special notice of the differences between mixes of certain songs from past Moody Blues releases, here is a little info based on that, in regard to "Playlist Plus" ... Once again, this collection features the full orchestral versions of "Tuesday Afternoon" and "Nights In White Satin," previously featured on "Time Traveller," plus these mixes are identical to the versions heard on the early pressings of the "Days Of Future Passed" vinyl LP. Also, the single versions of both "Ride My See-Saw" and "The Story In Your Eyes," previously featured on "The Best Of The Moody Blues" and a few other compilations, are featured here. Also, we get a repeat of the "One More Time To Live"/"You Can Never Go Home"/"My Song" sequence from "Time Traveller." Glad to find that these "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour" selections, as well as "It's Up To You," from "A Question Of Balance," received some more recognition since the box set. Also, the four-minute orchestral mix of "Bless The Wings" is featured, once again.

As wonderful the choice of Moody Blues compositions are, on this release, there are some negative points in regard to the overall product. First off, unlike most past Moody Blues compilations, "Playlist Plus" does not include a CD booklet that features any interviews nor history of the band. Since "Time Traveller" and the CD reissues from "Days Of Future Passed" to "Seventh Sojourn" pretty much covered such information, I suppose it wasn't necessary to rehash what's already been said in another Moody Blues collection. Also, a minor gripe is that, once again, the shorter version of "Driftwood" is featured, and not the full original version from "Octave," which is about a half minute longer. Too bad this was never corrected, for each time a Moody Blues compilation featuring this track was released (...ever since the "Voices In The Sky" compilation)! Finally, you would think that, with a title like "Playlist Plus," this release would be jam-packed with lots of songs, like most Moody Blues compilations were, since "Time Traveller." I checked the grand total of minutes per CD for this release, and I was shocked at how much space on each CD was left over...

Disc 1 is almost 50 minutes total, so there is plenty of room to add some nice short tracks. To make "Playlist Plus" unique, I would have added "Fly Me High," "Really Haven't Got The Time," "Love And Beauty," "Leave This Man Alone," "Cities," and "A Simple Game," as featured on "Prelude" and the expanded CD reissues of "Days Of Future Passed" and "In Search Of The Lost Chord." After totaling up the running time for each of these selections, there is still a little more room to fit another song on the disc, so I would have chosen "The Actor," from "Lost Chord" ... This sort of revamped "Playlist," for the first CD in this set, would have satisfied me!

Disc 2 is under 64 minutes and could have received an additional song per Moody Blues LP ... In this case, I would have chosen "Dawning Is The Day" (from "A Question Of Balance"), "After You Came" (from "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour"), and "For My Lady" (from "Seventh Sojourn"), as each of these songs received recognition on at least one Moody Blues "best of" collection, in the past. As an alternate, I would have also been happy if "Gimme A Little Somethin'," "King And Queen," and "What Am I Doing Here?" from "Caught Live +5" were chosen as additions to the second CD. :)

Disc 3 is a little over 57 minutes and should have included "The Other Side Of Life," which was neglected by some "best-of" compilations, as well as the rare pair of "Highway" and "This Is The Moment."

If this Moody Blues' collection were to add some more "meat to the bone," whether you agree with my additional choices to fill the gaps or not, or could think of some personal favorites of yours to add, "Playlist Plus" would then be more likely to live up to its name.

Before I close, here is some advice to collectors of Moody Blues compilations or for those just getting into the band ... If you're looking for an acceptable 3-disc Moody Blues set, choose "Collected," while supplies last. You get between 17-19 songs per CD, a much bigger variety than the selection featured on "Playlist Plus." Also, while "Time Traveller" lacks three songs that are featured on "Playlist Plus," it is a much better deal (At the time I am submitting this review) to buy the box set for one extra disc that brings up the price to about ten dollars more than the price for "Playlist Plus." Also, compare the quantity of songs per disc between this release and "Time Traveller" and see how much more the latter release has to offer ... Have a look on these pages and see for yourself!

Don't want to conclude this review on a low note, so I will give some credit to this album ... The CD holder/fold-out does include some variations on certain photographs of The Moodies from their past photo sessions, so that is something original for "Playlist Plus."

Even though there is much lacking from The Moody Blues' "Playlist Plus" release, it's always a treat to look forward to any upcoming Moody Blues "best-of" collection, no matter how many CD's are included. Hope there will be more to come, and hopefully future playlists will include some rare material like the orchestral remakes of "Isn't Life Strange" and "Question," from "Legend Of A Band," and the remixes of "Never Comes The Day" and "Question" from the "Voices In The Sky" collection. Anyway, thanks for reading! God Bless...

~KevyGuy :)

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Essentially what this latest Moody Blues anthology does is take 2005's 2-disc GOLD and tweaks it slightly. Here are the principle diferences.

PLAYLIST PLUS repeats 31 tracks included on GOLD. PLAYLIST drops three tracks from GOLD ("Forever Autumn," the stunning Justin Hayward single which went top 10 in the UK; and "Talking Out of Turn," and "Sitting at the Wheel," which reached No. 65 and 27 repsectively on the U.S. singles charts) then adds five others ("Dear Diary," "It's Up to You," "One More Time to Live," "You Can Never Go Home" and "My Song"). Because PLAYLIST has two more tracks than GOLD, the total playing time increases to about 172 minutes. This, of course, means that PLAYLIST must be spread over three discs, resulting in a list price that is nearly double that of GOLD. All things considered, GOLD offers more bang for your buck. However, both collections omit the pre-Hayward/Lodge version of the band and their mid-Sixties hit "Go Now." If you want that, go with 1998's ANTHOLOGY.

quite simply everything on these cds have been out there already.even for an fan(fanatic)such as my self its hard to spend the money for something that has no real value except for the new pakaging which is rather weak in its production.for the listner who does not know the moody blues or has just a little of their music.this is not the cd to buy there are many great collections out there that i would recomend instead of this one.first one that comes to mind would be the moody blues time travler another would be their wonderful live recordings such as lovely to see you or another complation of their music from the gold series of cds.

For sheer sonic audacity, few recording artists have ever topped The Moody Blues. They were one of the bands to wed the concepts of symphonic rock successfully to their albums. This three disc set follows them just as they start their strongest work (skipping the early singles and dropping "Go Now" from this collection) and moving as they mellow into a successful stadium rock band from after late 70's.

Once they became psychedelic darlings with

they adopted the mellotron into their core sound. Seeing as member Mike Pinder actually worked at a factory that built the instruments, he was able to adapt them as he saw fit. It adds to the warbley and mystical sounds in "Story In Your Eyes," "Isn't Life Strange" and "Dear Diary," and began to offer the band an identity that set them apart. At one point, the image became so much that John Lodge wrote "I"m Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band" (a top 20 US hot) to speak back to the issue. The band called it quits soon after, and their are two fine efforts from Justin Hayward and John Lodge's "Blue Jays" project on disc two. (However, Hayward's terrific "Forever Autumn" is inexcusably missing.)

The third disc highlights the comeback singles from 1978's

on. While the songs sound strangely 'typical' as opposed to the transcendental 60's and early 70's work, that is not to say that the songs aren't any good. In fact, "Your Wildest Dreams" is a great work, matching a nostalgic lyric to a contemporary sound. It's not bad stuff, just average. Had I been asked to grade disc three, it would probably be a stand alone 3 star effort. As with many of the progeny of the 60's that helped define an era (think The Grateful Dead, The Who, even The Beach Boys) that have seemingly coasted more on legend than output, The Moodies' compilations are best served as introductions to the best albums, like

or

.

Incidentally, the sound on these discs is even better than the 1996 reissues. There is nothing by way of liner notes, but the band is represented by a good series of photographs that run through the decades. And finally, if you really need a comp set, you might be better off with the double disc

or - if you really want to splurge - the 4 disc

box set.

The sound quality and listing of songs is excellent. However, the listing is lacking "The Other Side of Life", "For My Lady", "Fly Me High" and the "Minstrel's Song". Also, "Nights in White Satin" should be one of the shorter versions. I like the song to end at 5:37 minutes. There is no Moody compliation that contains all these songs in new remastered versions unless you purchase the newly released remastered albums. Even still, "The Other Side of Life" album has not been remastered.