The Moody Blues — On The Threshold of a Dream

Here’s another Moody Blues album, from 1969, the key tracks of which were so well represented on the “This Is The Moody Blues” compilation that, back in my early collecting days, I didn’t feel the need to buy the actual album. Eight of this album’s 13 tracks are on the compilation (though edited or remixed in different ways). One entire side of “This Is” is from Threshold, with one exception. So, to a cash-strapped 20-something, buying something I mostly already had wasn’t likely to make any sense. Also . . . even to a fan of surrealism, the cover is bizarre, disturbing and genuinely dark, as in, hard to see.

So, I never bought this one, either, until 2020, when I was making periodic runs to Matones in Collegeville to act as if things were normal and bring home some comfort music. This was definitely that.

As much of this as was covered on “This Is,” one key song, my favorite on the album, was missed: “Are You Sitting Comfortably.” I don’t know why, but that one really grabs me, and the rest of the album is a dream. This is all beautiful, and maybe less stridently a concept album while still maintaining certain cohesive themes. Gorgeous, ethereal, and very ’60s.