In June 1981, The Moody Blues released their 10th studio album, called Long Distance Voyager.
Long Distance Voyager was considered as one of their disappointing albums and was very far away from their masterpiece, Days Of Future Passed. Regarded as poor creativity and a tremendous decline in the way they’d done their compositions.
However, those were the critics’ opinions. With this album, The Moody Blues had showcased their big ELO influence, and you would have not guessed this was them.
This was the first Moody Blues album without their founding member and keyboard player Mike Pinder, and his mellotron sound trademark had already completely disappeared on this album — with him gone 3 good songwriters left (enough to give this album its awesome moments).
Justin Hayward still had his voice, John Lodge can still provide enjoyable basslines despite the 80s technology, and Ray Thomas gave us the three awesome songs on this album, “Painted Smile”, “Reflective Smile,” and “Veteran Cosmic Rocker.”
The Moody Blues had their ups and downs, and in my humble opinion, this isn’t a flawless Moody Blues classic, but still, it’s the last good album we’ve ever heard from them and was even better than its predecessor Octave.
Listen to the full album below, and let us know what you think: