Moody Blues Question Of Balance CD

The Moody Blues: Justin Hayward, Graeme Edge, John Lodge, Mike Pinder, Ray Thomas.
Engineers: Derek Varnals, Adrian Martins, Robin Thompson.
Includes liner notes by John Reed.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
The Moody Blues' first real attempt at a harder rock sound still has some psychedelic elements, but they're achieved with an overall leaner studio sound. The group was trying to take stock of itself at this time, and came up with some surprisingly strong, lean numbers (Michael Pinder's Mellotron is surprisingly restrained until the final number, "The Balance"), which also embraced politics for the first time ("Question" seemed to display the dislocation that a lot of younger listeners were feeling during Vietnam). The surprisingly jagged opening track, "Question," recorded several months earlier, became a popular concert number as well as a number two (or number one, depending upon whose chart one looks at) single. Graeme Edge's "Don't You Feel Small" and Justin Hayward's "It's Up to You" both had a great beat, but the real highlight here is John Lodge's "Tortoise and the Hare," a fast-paced number that the band used to rip through in concert with some searing guitar solos by Hayward. Ray Thomas' "And the Tide Rushes In" (written in the wake of a fight with his wife) is one of the prettiest psychedelic songs ever written, a sweetly languid piece with some gorgeous shimmering instrumental effects. The 1997 remastered edition brings out the guitar sound with amazing force and clarity, and the notes tell a lot about the turmoil the band was starting to feel after three years of whirlwind success. The only loss is the absence of the lyrics included in earlier editions. ~ Bruce Eder
The beautifully remastered version of the Moody Blues's 1970 back-to-basics album (translation: they cut way back on the overdubs) strips away the original aural murk at last, and includes informative liner-note interviews with the band about the recording process. Standout tracks include the classic sort-of protest song "Question" and "It's Up to You," one of singer/guitarist Justin Hayward's most authoritatively wistful riff-rockers.
There is a clear attempt to pare back the lush excesses of their earlier work in favor of a leaner rock sound, as heard on cuts like John Lodge's pell-mell "The Tortoise and the Hare." Still, one of the album's standouts is Ray Thomas's "And the Tide Rushes In," a lovely psychedelic ballad of the sort that moved the Who's Pete Townshend to remark that the Moody Blues' albums were so gorgeously produced that listening to them was like "being in church." A QUESTION OF BALANCE is a fine album, and a clear preparation for its successor EVERY GOOD BOY DESERVES FAVOUR, one of the band's finest moments.
A beautifully remastered version of the Moodies' 1970 back-to-basics album (translation: they cut way back on the overdubs) with the original aural murk stripped away at last, and informative liner-note interviews with the band about the recording process. Standout tracks include the classic sort-of protest song "Question" and "It's Up to You," one of singer/guitarist Justin Hayward's most authoritatively wistful riff-rockers. The prettiest track is Ray Thomas's "And the Tide Rushes In," a psychedelic ballad of the sort that moved the Who's Pete Townshend to remark that the Moody Blues' albums were so gorgeously produced that listening to them was like "being in church."Rolling Stone (11/12/70, p.40) - "...an abundance of spiritual and other insights and poetry that recalled the best of - yes, I dare say it - Gibran, colossal Straussian orchestrations simulated by a mellotron and heavenly choirs....an unexaggerably beautiful record..."
Uncut (p.120) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[B]y 1970's A QUESTION OF TIME, they'd shifted to a simpler approach, easier to recreate live."