Strange Times West Chester PA

Strange Times

The Moody Blues

Universal Records, 1999

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 09/01/1999

Like many people, my first taste of the Moody Blues was throughthe radio. Songs like "Nights In White Satin" (in all itsoverplayed glory), "Tuesday Afternoon," "The Voice" and "YourWildest Dreams" were all part of the pattern of my young life.Justin Hayward and crew might not have had a lot of time on myturntable when I was young, but I listened intensely every time Iheard them on the radio.

So why am I utterly disappointed by Strange Times, their first album in years? Is it because alot of the rich, layered harmony vocals that I loved on some songsjust aren't there this time around? Or is it that the music soundslike the band was bored to tears at certain points on thisalbum?

Now, I realize that music changes as time passes, and change isoften good (even if it doesn't seem like it at the moment you firstexperience it). But I can't fathom why the band would utilize whatsounds like synthesized drums on the opening track "EnglishSunset". It's bad enough that such a gentle tune is turned into ashuffle, but the drumwork sounds like something off a technoalbum.

And, I realize that I probably expected to hear a lot of theheavily arranged songs like "Your Wildest Dreams" and others whichwere both poppy and pretty. Unfortunately for me on both counts,The Moody Blues do two things on Strange Times. First, they scale back their sound so muchthat I often thought I was listening to a group like The Fixx. (Nooffense to Fixx fans; I'm just saying this style of performanceisn't suited for a band like The Moody Blues.) Second, with rare -and I mean rare - exception, there are no vocal harmonies. Tracks like"Sooner Or Later (Walkin' On Air)" and "Forever Now" really wouldhave benefitted from this.