Early Hours [SACD] - Eleanor McEvoy

Advantages: The first Moody Blues concept album. Is this what started prog rock?
Disadvantages: Perhaps a little dated - but it is 40 years old!

...Isn't life strange? So wrote John Lodge on a later album. This, though, was the one that started the ball rolling, creating a distinctive and unique sound that would become loved and followed for 40 years and three generations of fans. It is appropriate to look back at this album as a new remastering has been issued and the band are starting yet another UK tour in the autumn. In 2003 Universal Music embarked on a project to re-master the first five of the Moody Blues albums from the original tapes using modern production techniques. They also decided to issue additional tracks, alternative takes and other versions which were not included on the final album. This is the 2006 deluxe SACD edition. INTRODUCING THE BAND The Moody Blues were perhaps predestined for their eventual place in the realms of rock - after all... Read review

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Advantages: Superb Chilled Out Krautrock
Disadvantages: Ever so slightly self indulgent

...Krautrock is a generic and somewhat derogitary name for the experimental bands who appeared in Germany in the early 1970s. Of these bands Can were at the forefront of the genre along with bands such as Kraftwerk, Faust, NEU! and Tangerene Dream. Can were formed in 1968 and described themselves as an anarchist community. Their music was based around improvisation and editing, and they were known to be able to Jam for hours on end without stopping. Their infulence on subsiquent generations of musicians has been noted and written about, with everyone from Julian Cope to John Lydon and even Blur citing their influence. Due to the experemental nature of the music they never really achieved any comercial success and have only achieved critical success in recent years, but then I don't think they really set out to achieve either... Read review

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Advantages: Excellent all-round Moody's album
Disadvantages: Short by modern standards but recompensed by additional material

.... They also decided to issue additional tracks, alternative takes and other versions which were not included on the final album. This review is the fifth and last on these 2006 SACD reissues. This album is perhaps the best example of the all round, all pervading sound of the Moody Blues from its climactic start to the final note. The Moodys gained the reputation of building a distinctive 'orchestral' wall of sound. The tracks tend to run one into the next. The opening of the next track is usually subdued and gives a (temporary) feeling of anti-climax but it too develops into its logical and majestic conclusion. THE ALBUM At 38½ minutes this is a fairly short album but is packed with dynamic rock at its best. The line up is the established one from the early period: Justin Hayward, John Lodge, Ray Thomas, Mike Pinder and Graeme Edge... Read review

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