Hall of Fame: Live at the Royal Albert Hall 2000

One thing you've got to say about the Moody Blues: unlike the remainder of their grittier Brit Invasion peers, middle age seems to suit them just fine--better than youth, in fact. Albums from the band's late '60s/early '70s commercial heyday pretty much fixed the Blues boys' stance. Having forsaken the modest charms of their initial R&B-influenced recordings, they forged a haughty amalgamation of MOR rock, bombastic symphonic ornamentation, and proto-New Age lyricism--hardly the stuff of restless youth. This live set finds Justin Hayward, John Lodge, Graeme Edge, and Ray Thomas performing their hits ("Tuesday Afternoon," "Nights in White Satin," "Ride My See-Saw," and so on) live with backing from the World Festival, recalling, of course, the band's '67 breakthrough, Days of Future Passed. Roll over Beethoven and tell Mantovani the news. --Steven Stolder