Be a long distance voyager and click on this link to travel back to the main Moody Blues page... Long Distance Honker Overall Album Score: 8.1 out of 10 Much better! It's 1981, and I guess that means the Moody Blues latest album can't be better than the bulk of their 70s stuff, but this is still a rather enjoyable pop-prog experience! The songs in here are good. The album opener, "The Voice," is quite clearly the best from the album. It is the most immaculate having a great production and a near-perfect melody! The rest of the songs are really quite excellent! It's marred a bit too much by show tunes (...this coming from someone who claims he likes show tunes...) But that stuff really isn't that bad ... and, yup, this is a good late-career Moody Blues album. Hooray! Oh! And another thing you'd might like to know about this album is that the Moodies say buh-bye to The Mellotron (Mike Pinder had left the band to be replaced by Patrick Moraz). Now, I am the rare sort of music-appreciator who might tell you that he likes the 80s synthesizer better than that dreary, muddled Mellotron ... but I actually miss that old sound! Oh well! The songs on here are still excellent, and that's all you ever need to know. Overall Album Score: 8.1 out of 10 (This is a pretty good album! I like the songs and The Moodies still prove that they're kings of the studio production.) Average Song Score: 8.3 (This collection of songs ain't half bad! Generally speaking, they were well produced and enjoyable.) Album Tilt: 8.0 (This certainly isn't a bad album to sit through ... the songs are too enjoyable. Just the same, it needed a bit more UMPH in the soul department to make Long Distance Voyager priceless in the slightest.) Artist Rating: 8.0 (The 80s doesn't fail to even deck The Moody Blues. But I think they came out with a formidable album. The songs are good at any rate.) Track Reviews The Voice 10/10 This is actually a pretty cool Moody Blues song! On this one, at least, it seems as if they picked up exactly where Seventh Sojourn left off. The production on this one is danged solid, but most importantly of all, this song has a great melody. It also succeeds in conveying that sort of spiritual depth that The Moodies were able to do with such ease in their past ... although, it's not totally impressive on the "spiritual" realm. Eh, who cares? This song is totally and one hundred percent enjoyable. This is easily the best thing on here. Talking Out of Turn 9/10 Cool! I like that low-register synth in here that goes all over the freaking place for no apparent reason. Yep ... this is an altogether cool song with impeccable production, a good melody ... It's not special or anything, it's just hella well-done and enjoyable. This one is also quite lengthy (at nearly eight minutes), and I hardly miss the time. A good one! Gemini Dream 8.5/10 Whoah ... synth-pop ... This song isn't quite as scrumptious, but it's still quite edible ... even though it's synth-pop. Eh! Synth-pop isn't a bad thing! It does make it more difficult for The Moodies to put feeling in their songs, 'cause synth-pop is usually a cold style of music. Oh well. It's pretty good. In My World 8/10 This is another lengthy song ... but this time, I don't welcome it quite as starkly. "Talking Out of Turn" was a cool song. "In My World" just goes on forever. Just the same, though, it was well-done and is quite listenable. Again, this hardly holds a candle to the classic seven Moodies albums, but it works perfectly well. Meanwhile 7.5/10 Whoah!! I'm liking this album incrementally less as I go, huh? Isn't that just totally bizarre? ... I suppose ... Oh well. This one was produced rather well, but the melody here is merely mediocre making this for one heck of an unmemorable song. But it's still cool. If they strayed away a bit from the 80s production on this one, it might have been a good blast-from-the-Moodies-past. But it's not as it stands. Oh well. 22,000 Days 8/10 The good news: it appears we're going up increments again! (BUY! BUY! BUY!) The bad news: it's not very memorable! This actually sounds like a song to a very cheesy rock opera. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. It has a good melody ... and the cheesy instrumentation is rather fun. So this is a good song. It's not exactly throwaway, but it's not essential. Nervous 8/10 OOOOOOHHHHHH!!!! This song sounds so danged sincere that I feel really bad that I can't fully get anything out of it. I guess it needed more soul or something. Oh well! This is totally enjoyable in an artificial sort of way ... and artificial is cool ... sort of. Painted Smile - Reflective Smile 8/10 Holy COW! This is unmistakably a show tune! How goofy is that? Instead of making this album, why didn't they just go to Broadway? Oh well. This is pretty good. It is cheesy, though. Although, most of the modern-age show tunes tend to be cheesy, don't they? Has anyone ever heard Jekyll & Hyde? Anything resembling rock on that one is as cheesy as heck. "Painted Smile" is still okay in my book. Even the carnival music connection in the next track called "Reflective Smile" (something that usually disturbs me for some reason) doesn't even phase me here. Veteran Cosmic Rocker 7.5/10 This isn't bad. Although, it really could have used a little sprucing up! It's kind of a mess! ... However, regular old 'cosmic rock' from the 60s was kind of a mess, too. Doing old 60s cosmic rock with 80s synths ... that's interesting! But it's hardly an improvement. The Moody Blues say give me much comment about your thoughts about this album here!

All reviews are copyrighted by the author, Michael Lawrence. He's a fake telemarketer.