Every good boy deservese favour, from 1971, by the Moody Blues, was their sixth straight psychedelic album.

The album is a worthy addition to your collection. However, as the title to my review suggests, my feelings towards the album are "it's ok".

It begins with a run-down of all possible music styles they can think of, which is makes for a pleasant enough track, but seems like a desperate idea for a song. The album then gets into the main body with the awesome rocker 'The story in your eyes' which has a rollicking riff and hearfelt vocals from Justin Hayward. Although really whiney, 'Our guessing game' is a decent enough song, though the only real fresh idea is some experimentation with vocal arrangements. Another smashing track follows in the really soft, pleasant 'Emily's song', a pretty John Lodge number featuring a well-timed cello riff. The album really changes pace with a hard-rocking 'The Wall' by Graeme Edge. Since it's an Edge number, the other four Moodies take turns on the vocals. Again, it's a bit negative "I've reached the top of my wall, I've found another way to fall" which kind of detracts from being a hard-rocking song, but it's a cool track.

The real problems with this album show up on side two. John Lodge's 'One more time to live' is really emotional and melodic, though the chorus is shouting words such as "Communication", "Creation", etc. that were first heard in "Procession". Then the album really suffers with Ray Thomas' "Nice to be here". It's not a bad song, only drags on too long, but I just feel as though we have heard this all before. It's followed by a sultry Justin Hayward ballad "You can never go home" which, again, is the sort of thing we've heard before.

I suppose the reason I'm being so hard on this album is my bitter disappointment with the last song, "My song", the only songwriting appearance by Michael Pinder. Pinder's song's are usually something to look forward to, but this song is simply a note for note copy of "The voyage/Have you heard". I don't know why it strikes me so much, but because it's such a copy of such a mezmerising classic, I can't feel it can only ever be there for teh sake of taking up space. The lyrics are nice, though. But a lot of the material on this album seems all to similar to what they've done before.

I think by now (1971) they had run out of ideas on the psychedelia theme and with this album they were more or less sticking to the genre as they had nowhere else to go. Their next album was a huge departure and ventured more into singer/songwriter pop and introspective folk.

To sum up, this album is a pleasant listen, but seems uninspiring as it doesn't take you many places that you haven't been before. That said, I hope you enjoy the album - brendan
Every good boy deservese favour, from 1971, by the Moody Blues, was their sixth straight psychedelic album. The album is a worthy addition to your collection. However, as the title to my review suggests, my feelings towards the album are "it's ok". It begins with a run-down of all possible music styles they can think of, which is makes for a pleasant enough track, but seems like a desperate idea for a song. The album then gets into the main body with the awesome rocker 'The story in your eyes' which has a rollicking riff and hearfelt vocals from Justin Hayward. Although really whiney, 'Our guessing game' is a decent enough song, though the only real fresh idea is some experimentation with vocal arrangements. Another smashing track follows in the really soft, pleasant 'Emily's song', a pretty John Lodge number featuring a well-timed cello riff. The album really changes pace with a hard-rocking 'The Wall' by Graeme Edge. Since it's an Edge number, the other four Moodies take turns on the vocals. Again, it's a bit negative "I've reached the top of my wall, I've found another way to fall" which kind of detracts from being a hard-rocking song, but it's a cool track. The real problems with this album show up on side two. John Lodge's 'One more time to live' is really emotional and melodic, though the chorus is shouting words such as "Communication", "Creation", etc. that were first heard in "Procession". Then the album really suffers with Ray Thomas' "Nice to be here". It's not a bad song, only drags on too long, but I just feel as though we have heard this all before. It's followed by a sultry Justin Hayward ballad "You can never go home" which, again, is the sort of thing we've heard before. I suppose the reason I'm being so hard on this album is my bitter disappointment with the last song, "My song", the only songwriting appearance by Michael Pinder. Pinder's song's are usually something to look forward to, but this song is simply a note for note copy of "The voyage/Have you heard". I don't know why it strikes me so much, but because it's such a copy of such a mezmerising classic, I can't feel it can only ever be there for teh sake of taking up space. The lyrics are nice, though. But a lot of the material on this album seems all to similar to what they've done before. I think by now (1971) they had run out of ideas on the psychedelia theme and with this album they were more or less sticking to the genre as they had nowhere else to go. Their next album was a huge departure and ventured more into singer/songwriter pop and introspective folk. To sum up, this album is a pleasant listen, but seems uninspiring as it doesn't take you many places that you haven't been before. That said, I hope you enjoy the album - brendan