The Moody Blues-Long Distance Voyager (1981)


 

Artist: The Moody Blues

Title: Long Distance Voyager

Label: Threshold

Format: LP

Cat #: TRL-1-2901

Year of Release: 1981

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1981

Listed Condition: VG+/VG+

Sell Date: 3/16/22

Sell Price: $2.99

Discogs Last Sold: 11/12/21 $1.91

Low:3/18/22 $1.50

Median: $1.00

Average: $2.00

High: $2.32

Current low price: $8.00

Current Number on Sale at Discogs:  80

Have/Want: 635/32

Where Sold: New Castle, DE

Time it took to sell: 7 yeaars

Where and When Bought: Albums Worcester New $7.29 right after it hit #1

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B+

Sad To See It Go: No

My friend John was talking disparagingly about an underground  DJ playing later day Moody Blues.  Even though this album is 41 years old, I’m guessing  this is what he was referring to.  In my mind, it is the last good one even though they had massive hits like "Your Wildest Dreams" in the ensuing years.  

Shockingly, Long Distance Voyager got up to #1 on Billboard and I had to buy it, as I did from 1979-1983 with every album that reached the pinnacle of the the American album charts.  Because of this, I know it start to finish cold even though there were only two hits and an also ran: the top forty "Gemini Dream" and the AOR cut that was inescapable, "The Voice," which opened the record. I still like "The Voice" if only for the melodic line "understand/the voice within" sounding vaguely more psychedelic than it should.  Listening to rest, I realized something that I never thought before hearing the next two tracks: Both of these peaked high for an AOR band: "Gemini Dream" at #12 and "The Voice" at #16.  The long ballad "Talking Out Of Turn" was a final low charting #65 single that never would have been a single if the other songs weren't so massive.   This sounds like the Electric Light Orchestra in many ways. 

Once the nod to popularity was out of the way, the rest is album is more "prog-lite."  The side closes with "In My World" which is long and meandering, but I always kind of liked it.  I seem to remember thinking side two tailed off in overall quality except for the bizzaro closing suite "Painted Smile/Reflected Smile/Veteran Cosmic Rocker."  

As for the rest, well the side opener "Meanwhile" I always liked although I swear the opening music was used for a television music bed.  The other two were a bit, shall we say, naff?  "22,000 Days" is ponderous and "Nervous" is the least memorable track on the album and once again sounds like an ELO filler track.  The producer for this album was not Jeff Lynne, it was Pip Williams who was known primarily for his work in the 70's with Status Quo.  

Very British hitmaking.

ED NOTE: A couple days later “22,000 Days” has been going through my head non-stop.  This is not a good turn of events.

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