The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live
(
TV) (2017)
The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live Blu-ray delivers great video and superb audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
The Moody Blues classic 1967 album Days Of Future Passed is regarded as one of the foundation stones of the progressive rock genre. In 2017, the band headed out on the album's 50th Anniversary Tour including the wonderful show captured at the Sony Centre For The Performing Arts in Toronto accompanied by a full orchestra. The concert begins with the band by themselves performing a selection of classic Moody Blues tracks before they are joined by the orchestra to perform Days Of Future Passed in its entirety plus a couple of fantastic encore tracks.
For more about
The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live and the The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live Blu-ray release, see the
The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live Blu-ray Review published by Jeffrey Kauffman on March 22, 2018 where this Blu-ray release scored
4.0 out of
5.
Starring:
Justin Hayward, John Lodge
Narrator:
Jeremy Irons
Producer:
Jeremy Azis
»
See full cast & crew
The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live Blu-ray Review
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, March 22, 2018
Ask most any rock fan to name a 1967 concept album that changed the course of music, and chances are just about every one of them would
probably cite
Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band. While there's simply no way to overstate the influence of one of the most seminal Beatles albums ever (I bet
some would argue
the most seminal Beatles album ever), there was another epochal album that appeared somewhat later than
Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band did that in its own way certainly changed the course of music and helped to introduce an exciting fusion
between classical elements and rock (much, in fact, as George Martin had started to do with many Beatles tunes).
Days of Future Passed
was only the second album released by The Moody Blues, appearing in November 1967, some six months (give or take) after
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely
Hearts Club Band.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band perhaps predictably easily topped the album charts in both the United
Kingdom and the United States, but perhaps surprisingly,
Days of Future Passed only made it to 27 on the United Kingdom charts. Perhaps
even
more incredibly, while it did ultimately get to Number 3 on the United States album chart, that wasn't until 1972. The album has
remained a watershed in what came to be known as "prog rock", and it continues to provide a satisfying listening experience, even if its melding of
genres seems a little tamer to contemporary ears than it probably did in 1967 (or 1972, for that matter).
Kind of incredibly, Peter Knight's original orchestrations for
Days of Future Passed weren't kept after the original recording sessions,
meaning any live version of the album
needed to have the orchestral parts recreated. That understandably took quite a bit of time, but plans for a live version of the album had been
gestating for even longer than
that, according to the enjoyable liner notes included in the insert booklet. The Moody Blues' 50th
Anniversary Tour in 2017 gave the band a chance to rehearse the album live with the Los Angeles Philharmonic before this concert at Toronto's
Sony Centre for Performing Arts.
The live version of
Days of Future Passed contains the following selections:
- The Day Begins
- Morning Glory
- Dawn (Prelude)
- Dawn is a Feeling
- The Morning (Prelude)
- Another Morning
- Lunch Break (Prelude)
- Peak Hour
- Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)
- Evening (Time to Get Away)
- The Sun Set (Prelude)
- Twilight (Prelude)
- Twilight Time
- Late Lament
- Nights in White Satin
- The Night (Finale)
Encore
The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live Blu-ray, Video Quality
The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, and
Universal Music Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. (The back cover of this release has "fine print" stating this is an interlaced
presentation, but PowerDVD, where I typically check resolutions on discs, identified this as a progressive presentation.) This is another live outing that
really depends on lighting regimens in terms of how much detail is apparent. The "pre-show" featuring the band tends to be lit in pretty fluorescent
looking blues a lot of the time, and that, accompanied by things like lens flare, can lead to some detriments in detail levels at times (contrast
screenshots 3 and 4 to see what I'm talking about). The orchestral part of the show tends to be a bit more uniformly and/or naturally lit, leading to
better all around detail levels. Black levels look just a tad milky at times, something that's probably not helped by some blue and violet lighting
schemes. There are some brief flirtations with noise in a couple of transitory shots, sometimes of the audience.
The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live Blu-ray, Audio Quality
The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live features great sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 tracks (once again Eagle Rock
has authored the disc to default to the stereo track rather than the surround track). The surround track has a really spacious quality to it, especially
with regard to
Days of Future Passed, but it simply doesn't match the "wet", arguably over-reverbed, sound of the original Deram recording.
That tends to give the massive string sounds a somewhat dryer feel than on the original recording, so purists may chafe just a little simply because
things sound a bit different. That said, fidelity is excellent across the board, and vocals are well prioritized, only occasionally tending to be slightly
buried by the orchestral masses.
The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation
Parts of
Days of Future Passed can tend to sound just a little "Muzak-y" to contemporary ears, with lush, arguably hyperbolic, orchestral
interstitials tending to overpower some slight if enjoyable pop-rock musings by the band. That said, the album is undeniably beautiful a lot of the time,
and this live performance offers a rather sumptuous sounding performance, even if it differs from the original recording in terms of hall acoustics and
reverb. Technical merits are generally strong, and
The Moody Blues Days of Future Passed Live comes
Recommended.
Use the thumbs up and thumbs down icons to agree or disagree that the title is similar to The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live. You can also suggest completely new similar titles to The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live in the search box below.
