''Strange Times'' is the fifteenth and penultimate studio album by the rock band

the Moody Blues The Moody Blues were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in May 1964. The band initially consisted of Graeme Edge (drums), Denny Laine (guitar/vocals), Mike Pinder (keyboards/vocals), Ray Thomas (multi-instrumentalist/vocals) and Clint W ...

, released in 1999. The sound features mostly

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, slightly processed

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

, light

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

, and string arrangements, with heavy

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

use in the fast-paced opening track, "English Sunset". This was the last Moody Blues album to feature longtime flautist and vocalist

Ray Thomas Raymond Thomas (29 December 1941 – 4 January 2018) was an English musician, singer and songwriter. He was best known as a founding member of the English progressive rock band the Moody Blues. His flute solo on the band's 1967 hit single " Ni ...

. This album and the following year's live album ''

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

'' would be the last two Moody Blues albums to contain any reference to the Moody Blues' custom label

Threshold Records Threshold Records was a record label created by the rock music group Moody Blues. The name of the label came from their 1969 album ''On the Threshold of a Dream''. The band formed this label to allow for artistically packaged gatefold covers for ...

in their credits.

Track listing

#"English Sunset" (

Justin Hayward David Justin Hayward (born 14 October 1946) is an English musician. He was the guitarist and frontman of the rock band the Moody Blues from 1966 until its dissolution in 2018. He became the group's principal vocalist and its most prolific son ...

) — 5:05 #"Haunted" (Hayward) — 4:31 #"Sooner or Later (Walkin' on Air)" (Hayward, John Lodge) — 3:49 #"Wherever You Are" (Lodge) — 3:35 #"Foolish Love" (Hayward) — 3:56 #"Love Don't Come Easy" (Lodge) — 4:33 #"All That Is Real Is You" (Hayward) — 3:33 #"Strange Times" (Hayward, Lodge) — 4:29 #"Words You Say" (Lodge) — 5:31 #"My Little Lovely" (

) — 1:45 #"Forever Now" (Lodge) — 4:37 #"The One" (Hayward, Lodge) — 3:39 #"The Swallow" (Hayward) — 4:58 #"Nothing Changes" (

Graeme Edge Graeme Charles Edge (30 March 1941 – 11 November 2021) was an English musician, songwriter and poet, best known as the co-founder and drummer of the English band the Moody Blues. In addition to his work with the Moody Blues, Edge worked as th ...

) — 3:32

Personnel

— vocals, guitar * John Lodge — vocals, bass guitar, guitar *

— vocals, flute, tambourine *

— drums, percussion, vocals ;Additional personnel *

Danilo Madonia Danilo Madonia is an Italian musician, composer, producer and arranger. Background Born in Genoa (Italy) in 1958, he began to approach music at a very early age, when his father and mother would record their performances on a small reel-to-reel ...

— keyboards, organ, orchestration

Charts

References

1999 albums The Moody Blues albums Polydor Records albums {{1990s-pop-rock-album-stub