The Moody Blues were a unique group even before a member of the US ping pong team brought one of their albums into China. More than any other successful group, including the early Beatles, they are leaderless. All five members are poets and composers who contribute equally to the production of about one album of original material every ten months. Each album has been a worthy product. The latest offering is no exception.

We can not point to outside influences on this album for all the stylistic inspirations seem to come from the individual composer and his relationship to other members of the group. Neither is any dynamic new direction taken with this album. Just more good Moody's music, played perhaps a bit mellower.

Lead guitarist Justin Hayward has traditionally been responsible for providing the strongest love ballad on previous albums (for instance, "Nights in White Satin" on Days of Future Passed and "Questions" on A Question of Balance). His "You Can Never Go Home" is the prettiest song on side two, but is outclassed by bassist John Lodge's "Emily's Song" on side one. Lodge's previous best works have been bouncy movers like "Ride My See-Saw" and "The Tortoise and the Hare," which functioned as vehicles for the Moodys to demonstrate their quick hands and musical dexterity. He rises as more of a force on this album. "Emily" contains not only the most classically beautiful melody on the album but also the most pleasant lyric: "Sing me a lullaby/Of songs you can not write/And I will listen, for there's beauty where there's love."

Lodge's second contribution, "One More Time to Live," is the most powerful and most intricate number on the album and it is from it that the "Desolation ... Creation .... Communication" theme from the opening "Procession" is drawn. Hayward's second song, "The Story in Your Eyes," is closer to the bouncy move along and through to the next, kind of thing that Lodge did on the other albums.

Flautist Ray Thomas also has two offerings: "Our Guessing Game" is his strongest composition since "Legend of the Mind." It moves swiftly through a lyric in which he tries to appraise his own mind and its continuous flights of fantasy. His other song, "Nice to be Here," is a failure in execution. It could have been a nice little children's song like "Yellow Submarine" or "Nic Nac Paddywac Give the Dog a Bone," but the lyric about Jack Rabbits drumming on the sides of biscuits and water rats boating is obscured in overproduction. The vocal should have been as strong as on "Guessing Game" and not hidden under the music.

Percussionist Graem Edge gives us the closest thing to a rock song on the album with "After You Came," which closes the first side. The Moodys are not know for their rocking, but this is a pretty good attempt. I feel Mike Pinder should have stayed in the studio a little while longer with "My Song." It's a fine vehicle for his modified mellotron, but he has performed it better live.

In short, if you're still listening to your old Moody Blues albums there's not a reason in the world that you won't like this one. They're still the Sistine Chapel of popular music. (RS 91)

STU WERBIN