\nLong Distance Voyager<\/i> was sort a comeback album for the
\nMoody Blues in 1981, generating two middling hits: “Gemini Dream”
\nand “The Voice.” The album came out at a good time: after the disco
\nscene fizzled out and just before new wave exploded on the U.S. pop
\nscene. Otherwise I wonder how this album would have fared, because
\neven by 1981 standards, this is indeed an old-fashioned rock album.
\nNot that there’s anything wrong with that if the songs are there.
\nAnd yes, the songs are good, but do not expect this band to break
\nany new ground here.<\/p>\n
The album immediately sweeps the listener into a world awash of
\nkeyboards and guitar with “The Voice.” Justin Hayward’s sweet
\nvocals combined with the song’s strong melody makes this one a
\nrepeat listen. I interpret the lyrics to be about the Moody Blue’s
\nown comeback; a theme that is repeated more explicit throughout the
\nalbum. The other single “Gemini Dream” sounds like an okay Electric
\nLight Orchestra song with its spacey instrumentation and somewhat
\nhooky melody. I suppose it was the obvious choice for a single, but
\nI prefer the third single “Meanwhile” because it boasts a good
\nmidtempo melody and an immediate lyric about the pain caused by
\ninfidelity. No song on this album is as short and to the point as
\nthis one.<\/p>\n
Which brings us to three slow ballads, two of them clocking in
\nat over seven minutes long. “Talking Out Of Turn” is a pretty John
\nLodge song about lost love. I like the string arrangement used
\nhere, but at over seven minutes long, the song is a bit
\nrepetitious. The same can be said for Hayward’s “In My World.”
\nAgain, another pretty song which does not hold my interest for the
\nfull seven minutes, especially with the tepid electric guitar solo
\nat the end. Lodge also checks in with the lovely ballad “Nervous.”
\nHere I think he should have let the song speak for itself and
\navoided some of the bombastic production values.<\/p>\n
Drummer Graeme Edge is represented with “22,000 Days” another
\nsong which seems to be about the band: “So start the show and this
\ntime\/feel the flow.” The song is a nice change of pace being more
\nrhythmic than melodic.<\/p>\n
However, it is flutist Ray Thomas that ends the album on the
\nmost audicious note. “Painted Smile” is a song in which Thomas
\npoignantly describes himself as a court jester, performing joyfully
\non the outside, but crying on the inside. With its organ-grinder
\nsounding keyboard and over the top singing, this could be a number
\noff of a Broadway musical. Is it corny? Sure, but it does make
\nsense within the context of the song. A brief spoken word passage
\nsegues into the song “Veteran Cosmic Rocker” which is the most
\nrocking number on the album and basically is a sequel to “I Am Just
\nA Singer In A Rock & Roll Band.”<\/p>\n
There really is not a bad song on
\nLong Distance Voyager<\/i>, but occasionally the bloated
\nproduction values are frustrating. Otherwise, this could have been
\na much better album. The songs are simple and appealing and could
\nhave used a more subtle approach. The theme running throughout the
\nalbum about the life of aging rockers is interesting, but it is too
\nbad that they had to sound just like that – aging rockers. Still,
\nwhen this album works, it works very well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":26103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6703],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-39075","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-moody-blues","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39075"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39075"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}