The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live Blu-ray Movie 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

• Question
• Ride My See Saw

The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live Blu-ray Movie, 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 Movie, 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 Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Depending on what exactly you want to define as a "supplement", there are arguably two "extras" in this package. The disc contains the following two pieces in addition to the titular Days of Future Passed Live:

• The Moody Blues in Concert (1080p; 51:18) features the band performing the following songs:

  I'm Just a Singer in a Rock 'n' Roll Band

  The Voice

  Steppin' in a Slide Zone

  Say it with Love

  Nervous

  Your Wildest Dreams

  Isn't Life Strange

  I Know You're Out There Somewhere

  The Story in Your Eyes

• Remembering Days of Future Passed (1080p; 21:26) is a very enjoyable restrospective featuring some excellent interviews with the band members.

The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live Blu-ray Movie, 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.