In Search of The Lost Chord (1968)

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

After The Moody Blues' hit single "Nights In White Satin", they wanted to produce an album where they would produce and play all on their own, without the aid of a symphony orchestra or any outside sources. The album, "In Search of The Lost Chord" also spawned another hit with "Ride My See-Saw", and the cult hit "Legend of A Mind". The Moodies began moving deeper into the psychedelic era of the late 60's, begun by "The Beatles". In fact, the Moodies emulated the Beatles to a great degree. But, onto the music itself.

Departure: An interesting little number that you would almost expect to propel the album into new and uncharted territory. The use of the cello bowed and sped up with Justin Hayward speaking a poem of Graeme Edge's, only to break down in laughter, almost makes you believe that the band may not take itself too seriously. Boy, what misdirection. The song rolls straight into a late 60's didy.

Ride My See-Saw: There's nothing terribly wrong with this tune. It has a very nice backbeat feel with a prominent bass line, and lots of shakers, tambourines, anything that shook apparently. Unfortunately it hides the drums. Edge may as well not even have played on the track. The vocal middle 8 is a nice touch with a good little guitar solo by Hayward. The mellotron, supplied by Pinder, doesn't hide too much of the song, so it actually is a long standing hit for the band, if a little repetitive and long.

Dr. Livingstone, I Presume: Lead singer turned flutist, saxophonist and resident tambourine shaker Thomas' first tune on the album is another little didy that is catchy and tuneful, if not for the overused mellotron in the background. Again, Hayward pulls out another nice little guitar solo. The ending rockout is a rare instance of the Moodies jamming. A rare instance indeed.

House of Four Doors (Part I): Bassist Lodge's second tune could ultimately have been one song instead of having a Part II reprise attached at the end of side one, but this is where the album TRIES to be experimental and ends up sounding disjointed and padded. It has three sub-suites. Thomas has a flute interlude, Pinder has a harpsichord solo and a huge pompous ending that tries to make the band sound like a huge symphony orchestra. All this part does is repeat the main theme, and is dreadful. Almost like Liberace! The song is very repetitive and draggy.

Legend of A Mind: Ray Thomas' cult classic based on Timothy Leary. The leader of the "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out" movement. The song has a few interesting changes and is not too long and redundant. It has energy, except for Lodge's "Aaaaaaauuuuuuughhhhhh", which became a trademark Moody shtick. The flute solo isn't too bad for a guy who just picked up the instrument a short time before. Pinder's groaning Mellotron adds very little Indian influence and is just an exercise in pitch bending technique, which on a Mellotron is not very pleasant to hear. The middle section itself is a tad long, but it quickly goes into the final section. Like I said, the song in itself has some planning and forethought, but it does get a little repetitive. The multi-voice harmonies, the crashing, all to, "Timothy Leary!", gets old fast. Then the song simply putters out with a little keyboard and mellotron bending again. A good effort for the Moodies, however it does become old quick.

House of Four Door (Part II): A revisiting of the main song, and it does remind me of just how lethargic the song actually is when you hear it a second time on the same album. Merely padding for the run-off of side one.

Voices In The Sky: This would actually be the last time a Hayward song would occur so late in the Moodies albums. Every album after this one would feature a Hayward song on side one as well as on side two. A pleasant song which utilizes Hayward's wispy, although strong vocals. It is an exercise in A, B, A, B song structure, and it is a nice song, but very mellow.

The Best Way To Travel: Pinder's foray into drug culture and astral traveling. An interesting song that is really quite catchy. But, it does have the terrible mid-section of mellotron pitch bending and high frequency chirps. Then the song merely repeats itself from the beginning again. Pinder's vocals are okay, mixed with Haywards backing. The final ascending chords on the acoustic guitars are nice at the end. A mellow rocker. By the way, did I say mellow again?

Visions of Paradise: Hayward and Thomas' first tune together. An attempt at George Harrison Indian mysticism. It is obvious that the Beatles influence was not lost on The Moodies. The song is a flute/sitar duet really, with Hayward's vocals. The vocals are abstract and of course are meant to "trip out" the listener while he's on his high. The song today would play as New Age. Meditative and dreary and mellow. I said it again!

The Actor: Hayward's first good song on the album. It does play into the mellow rock deal once again, but the vocals and melody, combined with the songs dreary tone, only help it. Probably the best song on the album. A tad long, the version on "This Is The Moody Blues" cuts out the last repeat of the chorus and keeps the song moving. This is the full version and it does play long.

The Word: Edge didn't write songs, so the other members of the band said, "Hey, why don't you write semi-trippy cosmic nonsense that people can blow their minds out to!" Pinder recites this hoaky acid-trip on the sounds of color and how we all strive for "The Lost Chord" and its word is "Om". Yawn!

OM: More George Harrison Indian mysticism. This time with an almost atonal quality, with what must have been left over instruments from "Visions of Paradise". Since they had all those instruments there, why not use them. A nice melody, but it is repeated a lot, with a call and response between Pinder and Thomas. Pinder's exposure to The Beatles during the Pepper sessions must have been great, because we've had tons of "Within You, Without You" in this album. So much so that I think I'll turn into a hippy if I listen to the sitar solo all the way through. It doesn't seem to have the same feel as when The Beatles did it. The trashy, fall apart end of the solo really shows The Moodies falling apart in their execution as musicians, and the mentality that, "Hey, we screwed up there, but don't worry, the listeners are stoned so they won't notice." The vocals that close the album are nice as they fade, with its heartbeat-like bass drum in the back. I always kind of like this ending, but not the rest of the song. Once again, mellow, dreary New Age music.

Summary

This Moodies album started the trend of cross-fading tracks so that they appear to merge from one to another. The holdover concept stemming from "Days of Future Passed" to give the appearance that the album is like one long symphonic piece of music, with each song being a movement. This idea would carry on to the final of the "classic seven" Moodies album, giving each album the "concept album" mark. Trying to find a concept in this album is like looking for a needle in a haystack. "In Search of The Lost Chord", is supposed to be the concept, so how, for example is "House of Four Doors" part of the concept? The only time the actual concept of a search comes about is from "The Word", where Edge literally tells the listener of a search. None of the songs have a similar theme, and I would fiercely debate anyone to tell me of a concept album by the Moodies that had a concept aside from "Days of Future Passed".

The album itself is really laid back in it's tone. The Moodies were not one to show off any instrumental chops and relied heavily on the mellotron to give the album it's far out sound, mostly in the form of pitch bending and groaning. The album has some memorable moments like "Ride My See-Saw", "The Actor", maybe "The Best Way To Travel", and even "Legend of A Mind". Hayward has a few guitar solos, but not at the forefront. These songs have good structure and are well executed, but others like "Om", "House of Four Doors: Parts I & II", "Visions of Paradise", come off sounding tired and listless. And this is only their second album. The trippy, psychedelic, hocus-pocus merely sounds like The Beatles on "Pepper" and "Mystery Tour". Not a strong album by any standard, padded with a lot of whimpering and whining.

Star Rating (out of 5)

**1/2out of ***** stars

Album Review by Shawn Dow

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