Octave (1978)

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 band's 1972 breakup each member went on to do their own solo projects. Justin Hayward and John Lodge recorded "Blue Jays" in 1975, Graeme Edge recorded two albums with Adrian Gurvitz of the Baker Gurvitz Army, "Kick Off Your Muddy Boots", and "Paradise Ballroom", Ray Thomas recorded "From Mighty Oaks" and "Hopes Wishes And Dreams", and Mike Pinder recorded "The Promise". Hayward also had his own solo venture apart from Lodge entitled "Songwriter", and Lodge had his solo album with "Natural Avenue". These guys were anything but inactive during their breakup period. I'm not sure exactly how they came about it, but they all reformed to produce what is probably the greatest comeback in rock history. Octave went on to become a massive seller (initially) which spawned the Lodge hit "Steppin' In A Slide Zone", and the mega-hit from Hayward, "Driftwood".

This is a strange period in the bands life, not only in terms of sound, but in personnel. Pinder recorded "Octave" but refused to tour. Pinder stated in interviews that this was due to the fact that he didn't want to be away from his fledgling family in California, but Edge stated in the documentary film "Legend of a Band" that it was due to the heavy strain of touring that "put the zap on his head".

Nevertheless, here is the sprawling hit album "Octave", the only hit album of the Moody Blues to go into bargain bins and be deleted.

Steppin' In A Slide Zone: The album begins with the sound of what can only be crickets and someone getting into a car and driving away. Then we are treated to a keyboard backed guitar solo, reminiscent of Led Zeppelin's "In The Evening". The solo is slow and well delivered, then the band climaxes to Lodge's little rocker, with a chorus of backing vocals. The song is slick and well performed, with the band sounding more polished than anything on their previous efforts. The song has verses, but no chorus and a fairly well constructed guitar solo, but the keyboards ruin it right in the middle and steal Hayward's limelight. The song quickly plods along, and any Lodge song is incomplete without his high falsetto backing, only to make the song repeat again and again. Edge's drumming is clean and well delivered, but what is Thomas doing? At 5 minutes, 30 seconds the song is too long.

Under Moonshine: Now the album starts getting weird with Thomas' first tune, complete with strings and horns and Hayward's tiny electric guitar sound. Thomas wins the Roger Whittaker award for this odious and strange tune. The song goes through a few changes and is structured very strangely and its hard to tell what he's talking about. This sounds mysteriously like something from "Mighty Oaks". The backing vocals sung by Lodge repeat Thomas' vocal line. The "maybe I'm crazy" section with its staccato strings make it sound like the Psycho theme. I guess Thomas is crazy after all. The backing vocals bury the song, but the mess of strings and horns buries the nice little guitar bit Hayward does opposite Edge. Who arranged this tune anyway? Weird, weird song.

Had To Fall In Love: Hayward tries to put the album back on track with one of his solo album inspired love songs. The song is nice enough, if a bit tired sounding, but the harmonica kills the effect. To me, this doesn't sound like a Moodies song, more like a Hayward solo effort. Just when I think it's not a Moodies song, there is a bunch of "oohs" and "aahs" to back it, but I guess Hayward did that in his solo material as well. The little drum break in the middle of the song is nice by Edge, but the song can't help but sound country with a "Men of The Deeps" backing vocal. At almost 4 minutes, it feels like forever for the song to resolve itself.

I'll Be Level With You: After an introduction I can't understand, we are treated into a multi-part attempt at progressive rock from Edge. The song reminds me so much of "After You Came" with the chorus of vocals lead by Hayward and its attempt at multi-part structure. The song sounds confused, if not for Hayward's nice fuzz guitar sound. After the song reaches its climax, it repeats itself all over again. If you don't have a lyric sheet, you'll be lost. There's one funny lyric where you can hear "yours will be bigger that mine". What are these guys talking about? The song ends off with a thin little guitar solo, buried by Pinder's excessive keyboards and Edge's string of rolls. Pinder then lays it on thick with an Oberheim anthem to end the song. I don't know what this song said, what it meant, or the structure. Confusing.

Driftwood: Finally, Hayward pulls a gem out of this album with the mega-hit, "Driftwood". The nice acoustic guitar work and mournful french horn begin the song. Then the song runs into its verses with, what's that? A saxophone in the background? Don't worry; it's not Thomas, but a session man. This tune has all the earmarks of a Hayward solo song. The nice ascending section with its slow retard and segue into the guitar solo is really effective, giving Hayward a chance to shine as a guitarist. The constant sax playing in the back is a bit much for this song. If the song had no sax, it could have been even better. The multi-part Hayward vocal is nice here too, and a lack of Lodge vocal falsetto to ruin it. Hayward runs into a second guitar solo to finish out the song. If only the rest of the album could have been this well structured and comprehensive, not to mention good! One complaint though, get rid of that sax!

Top Rank Suite: What the hell is this!? Hayward gone uptown city boy! An attempt at jazzy blues with this up-tempo white-boy shuffle, with that oh, so nasty sax sound. In fact, there are tons of saxes in this tune. The chorus of vocals all to Loge's falsetto vocals give me an earache. I guess they're talking about getting to the "great gold record in the sky". Hayward's wispy vocals are pushed ahead in the mix to keep from sounding distant. The sax is all over the place in this part, as well as the quickly delivered middle section with Thomas frantically shaking that tambourine. Hayward's thin, twangy guitar solo is not good at all and forgettable. The constant soaring wailing vocals at the end, and the city boy la, la's at the end of the song, well, I don't know what to say but,...crap! And someone get that sax out of that guy's mouth! Insipid!

I'm Your Man: Oh, please! This tune, driven by Thomas' flute and Pinder's organ sound, not to mention the Roger Whittaker vocals and twangy guitar, oh man! The arrangement is dull and repetitive. The orchestra comes into "I'm Just A Man". More Thomas solo material re-worked into a Moody Blues album. The orchestral arrangements mixed with more horns, oh wow! What is this tune? The Moody Blues sound almost schizophrenic! The middle 8 section guitar solo stands out with some authority and is good, only to come back with more strings. It sounds like they just threw everything into this tune, including the kitchen sink! No real direction. The song ends with Thomas crooning "I'm Yours!".

Survival: A creepy, eerie intro with strings and a happy guitar sound and oboes begin this, Lodge's worst song in Moodies history. Once again, a tune sounding like a Lodge solo work, reworked for the moodies. The climax with strings and keyboards playing a song that sounds something like the tune, is inexplicably bad. A horrid mish-mash of sounds. Hayward's fuzz guitar is nice, but it has no place here. Is this a love song, what is this tune? Once again, the kitchen sink, and I think the plumbing is in this tune. The song plays like an anthem, and is part two of lodge's transformation into the Moodies Number One ego! More drudgery.

One Step Into The Light: Pinder's final Moody Blues song, is of course about what now... God! It starts off with vocals in a serene enough tone, but then turns into a power trip. There are nice touches, like the easy drum line by Edge and Lodge's plunking bass that occasionally sticks out. Then we have a chorus of vocals speaking of "cosmic circles" and that "life is our saviour" and "save your soul". Pinder is up at the podium preaching again, just like in "Melancholy Man". This tune reminds me so much of that ponderous mega-epic, I think I'll go for that Draino! The song reeks of Christian rock. You could see how Pinder's style was falling out of the current rock environment and had no place in The Moody Blues. "There's one thing I can do, play my mellotron for you, try to blow away your city blues". A laughable lyric to say the least.

The Day We Meet Again: Hayward closes out this album with his venture into Pinder territory. After a tune like "One Step Into The Light" the album should have ended, but oh no, we have to endure this one as well. Pinder's little keyboard run at the song's opening, playing the main melody, and a chorus of more "ahs" leads into Hayward's vocal. Hayward's vocals are morose and maudlin, and have more Christian rock trappings in them. Shame on you Justin! Hayward pulls out a nice guitar solo, reiterating the main melody with a little distortion, almost redeeming the song, and its middle 8 after the solo make me wish they'd play that tune instead, but then there are those awful backing vocals again. The "Hold Ons" and "Don't Let Gos", drag the song out. The song ends up sounding like a mess in its final minutes, with what I think are strings on top of it all, making the song into a compression sandwich. At 6 minutes, 18 seconds, it sounds like Hayward is trying to out-Pinder Pinder! A Mammoth colossal mess. The song ends with its organ, guitar breakdown, swelling with the organ reaching a sudden stop. I guess Pinder must've picked up the gun and fired! It must have been all too much.

Summary

This has to be the longest album in history! It feels like it has no real direction and too much production behind it. They don't sound like the Moody Blues, they sound like 5 guys that did solo projects, giving us a taste of what they did on their break from the band. The overuse of strings, saxes, everything, not to mention weak material, pull the album down into a heap. Tony Clarke produced this album, and not unlike Phil Specter during the Beatles "Let It Be" sessions, used a ton of production to give all of this weak material some sort of strength. Big mistake. The end product is like a headless chicken running around the hen house.

Now this album was a massive seller in the classic comeback sense. Octave went double platinum in Canada and Driftwood became a mega-hit. Steppin' In Slide Zone was a hit, but not to as great a degree. Ray Thomas' efforts sound just like his solo stuff, and Lodge's material like the mega-soupy "Survival" bear his "Natural Avenue" trademark. They all had been apart from each other for so long they didn't know how to play together, so they played as themselves, apart and separate.

Another Moody Blues historical non-classic album. This record is hard to sit through and take seriously, although there are moments that shine through, it just can't make this Titanic float.

Rumor has it that after this album was completed and the band got Patrick Moraz to replace Pinder for the tour, that Pinder tried to sue the band and keep them from touring with Moraz. Now, now, Mike, don't be jealous!

Star Rating (out of 5)

*1/2 out of *****

Album Review by Shawn Dow

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