These two SACDs, bolstered by two and four unissued bonus tracks respectively, reveal the onetime Brum-beaters at the top of their psych-edged prog game. Every Good Boy… opens with Procession – all cosmic keys from Mike Pinder, rainfall effects, chants of ‘creation’, and the Om mantra backed by suitably out-there sitar, flute and harpsichord. Yogically landing back on terra firma for the uptempo riffage of The Story In Your Eyes, the quintet’s soaring harmonies top a great, whisky-soaked piano crescendo. Emily’s Song has hippy guitars and Beatley strings, One More Time To Live trips by and the dinky Nice To Be Here is almost Dixie. The unreleased The Dreamer sees Ray Thomas lead an ELOesque, sweeping number.
For the Moodies’ seventh outing, the Mellotronics complement Justin Hayward’s sweet layered vocals on New Horizons, while the flutey accordion lilt of For My Lady leads into the reflective chorale of Isn’t Life Strange? It surely was for the jetsetting band, with John Lodge’s melancholic When You’re A Free�Man flowing into the brass-rock classic, I’m Just A Singer (In A Rock’n’Roll Band). Of four additions, the unissued Island is most in keeping.
