Days of Future Passed

iTunes Review

In a year, 1967, that also brought the world, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Are You Experienced? and The Velvet Underground & Nico, came this ambitious concept album from the Moody Blues. With musical assistance from the London Festival Orchestra, the band pursued the story of a journeyman’s day to night, which explains the song titles, “The Day Begins,” “Lunch Break: Peak Hour,” “Evening” and the poetry used to link the tracks. Packed within this gorgeous orchestration were two hit singles in the deliriously romantic “Nights In White Satin” and the trippy ode to leisure, “Tuesday Afternoon,” which, on the album, is melded into the more ambitious “The Afternoon: Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)” with the “(Evening) Time To Get Away” track. The album takes a wild chance on combining orchestral maneuvers and spacey, British psychedelia and pulls it off as a brilliant period piece. Ambitious backing vocals add a colorful dimension to “The Morning: Another Morning.” Flutes and strings wander through the hypnotic tunes, bringing a meditative calm to “Evening” with “The Sunset” and “Twilight Time.”  A classic.