Hall of Fame: Live at the Royal Albert Hall 2000
One thing you've got to say about the Moody Blues: unlike the remainder of their grittier Brit Invasion peers, middle age seems to suit them just fine--better than youth, in fact. Albums from the band's late '60s/early '70s commercial heyday pretty much fixed the Blues boys' stance. Having forsaken the modest charms of their initial R&B-influenced; recordings, they forged a haughty amalgamation of MOR rock, bombastic symphonic ornamentation, and proto-New Age lyricism--hardly the stuff of restless youth. This live set findsJustin Hayward,John Lodge, Graeme Edge, and Ray Thomas performing their hits ("Tuesday Afternoon," "Nights in White Satin," "Ride My See-Saw," and so on) live with backing from the World Festival, recalling, of course, the band's '67 breakthrough,Days of Future Passed. Roll over Beethoven and tellMantovanithe news.--Steven Stolder