A Question of Balance (1970)

WARNING!!

These reviews are given in the spirit of a personal editorial and of personal opinion. If you would find yourself offended by these views and criticisms within the body of these reviews, please do not read further. It is not our intention to offend or injure someone's views on their favourite band. We wrote these as one-time fans who now, after many years, revisited these albums and wanted to write fair and unbiased reviews of The Moody Blues' material. If indeed, a member of The Moody Blues does happen to read these reviews, please take into consideration that these are simply opinions. These reviews present an alternate perspective.
Thank You,
Shawn and Andrew Dow,
March, 2007

Album Review by Andrew Dow

Album Review by Shawn Dow

Album Review by Andrew Dow

The Moody Blues were riding the crest of a wave with their success. That year of success of 1969 propelled them into 1970. Even though "On The Threshold of A Dream" and "To Our Children's, Children's Children" came out and charted around relatively the same position, they could easily produce another album under Threshold Records by themselves with Tony Clarke. On this album, unlike their last three, they would play music they could easily reproduce on stage. This decision, in my opinion hurt the bands creativity and their ability to try to expand their musical boundaries. This album would feature a song that would last in their repertory catalogue for a long time. "Question" turned into what is easily their most successful song since "Ride My See-Saw" and "Nights In White Satin".

Question: Hayward starts the album with a bang, literally! Hayward's quickly strummed 12-string guitar with a rapid succession of chord changes is blown up by huge trumpeting horns, a la the mellotron. Hayward's anti-Vietnam, anti-war epic, complete with lots of "Ahhs" and fast tempo opening, features a snarling vocaled Hayward and a drive not seen since "Higher And Higher", only to slow down into a soft, quiet love ballad. How an anti-war song segues into a ballad is Hayward's own little mystery. The bombast here supplied by the mellotron propels the ballad into pompous ooze. I only wish the mellotron didn't force it's orchestral-sized influence on the soft section. The tambourine swung by shaker Thomas is totally out of place. Hayward's vocals have some body, but sound somewhat strained and tired. The song moves out of the ballad back to the anti-war tune and blasts us with mellotron-supplied trumpets like Judgment Day or something like that. Lodges "Ahh's" are truly hilarious. The final drum bombast blows the song out the door. If only Edge could've played like that on "To Our Children's, Children's' Children" more.

How Is It (We Are Here): Pinder's query into evolution and the prospects of war. This song has a creepy, lurky feel, accented by the sharp high hat and bass, bass drum combo. The middle 8 section lifts the song up, almost like it's another song entirely. The mellotron rules the roost here, with a nice electric keyboard sound. Hayward comes up with a nice fuzz-box guitar solo that shows he had some guts to his playing at times. The song slowly settles back to its original feel. I like the song a lot, although the mellotron runs the song through it's paces. A good Pinder tune next to "Sun Is Still Shining".

And The Tide Rushes In: Thomas' first tune is almost like hearing Roger Whittaker. My mom liked this tune. She also liked Roger Whittaker. The song is nicely spaced with Hayward's acoustic guitar and Edge's softly kept bass drum pulse, accented by strings. The chorus is a little hammy, but wasn't Roger Whittaker? The mandolin solo by Hayward is nice. The song repeats again, but the song does show Thomas' vocal strength, for better or worse.

Don't You Feel Small: More creepy sounding tunes like "How Is It (We Are Here)". Edge's tune shows a chorus of whispered voices sounding like someone on a bad trip. The song turns happy-go lucky with it's middle section, with a sputtered flute solo by Thomas. The drumming here shows Edge trying to inject some life in the proceedings. The song then simply repeats itself form the start again. The small hi-hat accent keeps the song off balance and interesting. A distant flute ends the tune. Interesting for Edge, but not "Higher And Higher" that's for sure.

Tortoise And The Hare: Lodge's blues number about the tortoise and the hare fable. The nice bass run and driving bongos beat back the chorus of vocals. Lodge leads a chorus of "Ahh's" with his sung middle 8 with a falsetto accompaniment that sounds almost girlish. The middle guitar solo gives Hayward a little room to play, double tracked against acoustic guitars. The stabbing melllotron effect against "Its alright" tend to annoy me a bit. The final crescendo sounds like someone literally turned the recording level up to give the band dynamics. The close of the song is a nice arrangement of chords and ends abruptly. The Moody Blues almost sound like they were playing together for once as a whole band! Not even faded out! A rare instance for these dudes. The song has a nice rhythm and melody, but is almost dull sounding.

It's Up To You: Hayward starts up side two with a pop-rocker in his shy, sad vocal style. The song plays like anything you would hear on radio in 1970. A sure fire single here. Nothing inventive, nothing new, just a guitar based riff. And guitars there are. Maybe three in the mix, and they all tend to be playing all different lines against each other. So much so that they tend to counteract each other. The chorus and ending chorus are nice and the song simply repeats itself. An A,B, A,B,C, A,B, exercise in the purest rock formula. That's what this tune sounds like, a formulaic tune, even by Hayward standards. The ending guitars simply reiterate the vocal melody, a Hayward crutch in his later guitar work.

Minstrel Song: Lodge's silly little song. Oh, this song annoys me! "Singing, ringing, love! Everywhere, love is all around?" The beat is much different for this band, but again, a chorus of vocals to back a Lodge tune. Was he afraid of singing on his own? Not so later in his career. The chorus is truly horrid. The falsetto vocals of Lodge are really ear shattering. The sloppily strummed electrics make this tune sound like something winged off the cuff! The heavily overdubbed vocals are boringly displayed. More A,B, A,B pattern again. The weakest tune on the album.

Dawning Is The Day: I guess this tune was used in an airplane ad illegally in 1970, only for the airline to be sued by the group, and they won. This tune is so poppy and folky, the mandolin only ads to the silliness. Hayward plays a few nice lines on it and the start/stop beat is good, but the bongos are a bit much. The overblown middle 8 and the flute solo are the most bombastic tripe I've ever heard. The solo by Thomas backed by floating mellotrons and a grandiose piano return seem anti-climatic, only to return back to square one again. I used to like this tune, only now it sounds tired to me. It repeats too much and goes on for far too long to maintain interest.

Melancholy Man: Oh, boy, here we go! Get ready! Pinder's not taking his meds! Written by someone who almost sounds like he's got a gun to his head and thinking about popping himself off at any moment... Pinder going for the gusto with his pseudo-Christian-Hippy-Intellectuality. Not that the song isn't attractive in a sick way, but you'd have to be really sick to listen for too long. All this talk of God and Jesus and oncoming Judgment Day make me think that Pinder was a born-again. The songs chorus of constant "Ahh's", especially Lodge's earns Lodge the Golden Razzie falsetto award for continued abuse of a musical form. Whoever told that guy that that bit sounded good? Tony Clarke? The middle keyboard solo sounds like the world's going to end. Clocking in at nearly 6 minutes, I usually skip this oppressive downer before I try to go swallow some drain opener. Pinder goes totally preacher here. Imagine Pinder placing himself in the role of Jesus! What an ego trip! The sarcastic "Melancholy Man", sung in the background in chorus by the other band members, almost sounds like the Moodies are reverting to their Brumbeat sound from '66.

The Balance: Not only do you get one Sermon on the Mount by Pinder, but you get another from Edge. The Moodies are getting preachy here! The song speaks of The "Balance" in nature and self-discovery, only to crash into a happy go-lucky chorus. Whoever said Christians can't rock out? This tune is really a spoken word oration about man and nature. Lodge gets his falsetto going again and makes you wonder if he had his nuts cut. Then the song goes on to the big finish, complete with chugging strings and "do-be-do-be-do-ahhs", all to pompous crescendo. They must miss the skiffle sound. Hayward's guitar is totally lost amid the roar of mellotrons and "do-be's". A silly approach to pseudo-intellectualism. Most likely, the most self-indulgent Moodies outing alongside "Melancholy Man" yet. But wait till the next album!

Summary

The Moodies were moving into dangerous waters with this album. At first it has a promising start, only to fall flat on it's second side. I read a review of this album once where the reviewer felt side one was like a continuation of "To Our Children's, Children's Children" and that side two reeked. Not until now have I realized just how right he was. Side One is good to a point, but then the band moves from poppy goo-goo to preachy hippy-jargon and pseudo-religious gobbledygook. This album is severely flawed by arrogance and flagrant pomposity. The Moodies have never sounded more sloppy and wretched up until this point. They must have thought they could do no wrong. Only tunes like "How Is It (We Are Here)" and "Question" could possibly save anything of readability for this album. The mellotron, once pushed to the background and used only sparingly on "To Our Children's, Children's Children", has now moved to the forefront, along with other electronic gimmicks on behalf of Pinder and his influence is greatly felt in the last quarter of this album. Disappointing, to say the least. In it's brief running time, I am now totally drained of feeling for this band at all.

Star Rating (out of 5)

*1/2 out of *****

Album Review by Shawn Dow

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