Customer Reviews

Sur La Mer

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

"Sur La Mer" was the fourth and final original Moodies album released in the 80s. The album was an improvement over "The Other Side of Life," which tried too hard to fit with the commercial music of 1986 and which succeeded with "Your Wildest Dreams." However, the music in that album tried to make The Moody Blues 80s hip, and historically their music has been their own, not their interpretation of current pop. Unfortunately, that tendency lingers on a few songs in this album.

On the positive, Patrick Moraz' overpowering keyboards were toned down significantly from the previous album; a much needed improvement. Also, there are several very good songs. Some of the better songs sound similar to the Justin Hayward and John Lodge solo effort "Blue Jays," but that is to be expected since both wrote or co-wrote every song on this CD.

There are several negative aspects to this album. Probably the most significant is the absence of flautist and vocalist Ray Thomas. Ray has always helped expand the breadth of the Moodies' music, and his absence is noticeable. Another negative is that some of the music tries too hard, again, to be current with musical trends of the late 80s. This characteristic is attributable to the creative leadership of Justin Hayward and John Lodge, who appeared to be looking for a more commercial sound. Another disturbing aspect of this album is the heavy reliance on synthesizers. Both Justin Hayward and John Lodge are credited with drum sequencing, which seems to me to be synthesized drums. Tony Visconti is also credited with programming, which I take to mean synthesizers of some type. While I applaud the lesser role of Patrick Moraz on this CD, I also wonder what he was doing when three others were doing synthesizer work.

The CD kicks off with "I Know You're Out There Somewhere," a lengthy combination of music and vocals that is considered the follow up to "Your Wildest Dreams" from "The Other Side of Life." This romantic ballad about seeking a lost love was a syrupy sweet video, and yet it worked for me. This song is also one of the few that inherited a flavor of the progressive rock for which the Moodies were once known, though this song is solidly pop. While fans of the classic 7 may bemoan the light lyrics and pop beat, the song is well written and performed. This song is one of the best on this CD.

Another excellent love ballad, "Want to Be with You," follows. Portions of the song have a wonderfully bombastic nature that reminds me of some of the most challenging of early Moodies music, though the song is pop. The harmonies on this song are also well done. This song is another of the better songs on this CD.

The third song, "River of Endless Love," is a throw back to "The Other Side of Life." The song is fast and tries too hard to show how current the Moodies can be. The cutesy synthesizer introduction turns me off as does the synthesizer in several other places. The vocals are acceptable, but this song just feels like commercial filler.

"No More Lies" is a sincere and wonderful Justin Hayward ballad, which means, of course, that it really is not a Moody Blues ballad. However, it is a wonderfully mellow ballad. There are moments in this song that anticipate "The View from the Hill," a 1996 Justin Hayward release that could easily have included this song. This song is an indication of the reason Justin Hayward has been given awards for his song writing ability.

Another relatively weak song is "Here Comes the Weekend." The vocals and music are played well, but the song seems like a low point on this CD.

"Vintage Wine" has Moody Blues lyrics with pop music. The lyrics are generally excellent, and had this song been influenced by the entire team, including Mike Pinder, it could have been a phenomenal Moodies song with airy synthesizers and a haunting flute.

"Breaking Point" at first seems a bit too pop, but read the lyrics and you realize the person in this song is incredibly haunted, perhaps by a lost love or loved one. The song could have been more heavily orchestrated and the lack of creative synthesizers again leaves the song wanting for more power, but is still reasonably good.

The disco-sounding "Miracle" would be fine for a group that specializes in dance music, but not the Moodies.

John Lodge redeems himself on "Love Is on the Run," easily his best contribution on this CD, ranking with "Want to Be with You" that he co-wrote with Justin Hayward. The soaring vocals and keyboards come together to create one of the more powerful songs on this CD.

The CD ends with "Deep," the fourth Justin Hayward written song. At last is a flavor of the depth the Moodies once had. Admittedly the song brings a flavor only, but it is there. The lyrics have a little spiritual new age flavor and Justin's vocals climb in places to emphasis portions appropriately. While there are some things about the music that I find slightly annoying, particularly some of the electronic percussion, this song also features some of the more intricate music on this CD.

Moody Blues CDs of the 80s suffered from a lack of concept and too much variety in musical styles; this CD suffers from both. However, there are some moments on this CD that make this CD quite worthwhile. Indeed, had a mere three songs been replaced by other songs the CD would have been much stronger. Had the remaining songs had more influence by Ray Thomas, and, in my dreams, Mike Pinder, this CD could have been absolutely phenomenal. However, in spite of the flaws, this CD is one of the better CDs of the post "Long Distance Voyager" era and well worth having in any Moody Blues fan's CD collection.

If you listen to nothing else on this album, hear "I Know You're Out There Somewhere". Intense vocals backed by fabulous, soaring synthepop--classic Moody Blues, even without the much-missed Ray Thomas flute. With or without the classic lineup, however, the Moody Blues show once again how the masters do it.

After the big commercial success of their 1986 release, "The Other Side Of Life," the Moody Blues followed it up with 1988's "Sur La Mer" (or "On The Sea" in French), and while it can be said that "Sur La Mer" is basically a sequel album to "The Other Side Of Life"---glossy, polished Moodies music tailor-made for the 80's---this is an excellent Moody Blues album all the same. The proof is in the high quality of the songs, all written or co-written by singer/guitarist Justin Hayward and singer/bassist John Lodge, including the charming Top 40 hit "I Know You're Out There Somewhere," the great rock of "River Of Endless Love," the light & breezy "No More Lies," the lovely acoustic pop of "Vintage Wine," the dancefloor grooves of "Miracle," and the brilliant album-closer, Justin Hayward's "Deep," an outstanding and surprisingly *sultry* Moody Blues number (amazingly, the band have never played it live, but it's a firm, all-time personal favorite Moodies song of mine). The only debit to "Sur La Mer" is, although still listed on the album as a band member, flautist Ray Thomas, like he was on "The Other Side Of Life," is completely absent (once again, the band's explanation was that Ray didn't write anything for the album). But other than that, "Sur La Mer" is a highly enjoyable Moody Blues album with wonderful songs and performances from the band. It's great stuff!

I agree that this is far, far superior to "Keys of the Kingdom." To folks who only liked the early Moody Blues works ending with "Seventh Sojourn," you may or may not like this (just as some people are not fond of anything that MB did before "Days of Future Past.") Certainly nothing compares to their early works but, hey, it was a different time period. If you ejoyed "Long Distance Voyager" and "The Present," you won't be disappointed. Best songs are "I Know You're Out There Somewhere (very pretty rock song)," "Want To Be With You" (romantic with some oomph), "River of Endless Love" (powerful and often left off of "best of" compiliations), "Breaking Point" (Unusually dark), and "Deep" (becomes more interesting with repeated listening).

This album rocks! Very underrated. Why can't Moodies fans from the 60's and 80's peacefully coexist? I like ALL FOURTEEN Moodies albums, so do NOT BELIEVE the bad reviews. This album is good. No, it's not Days of Future Passed, but guess what? Days of Future Passed is not Sur La Mer either! BOTH ARE GREAT! The Moodies have aged and evolved just like everyone does, and their music is great all along the journey! Who would listen to 14 albums if they were all the same? Even Octave, a very underrated album, has its place, and the collection needs it. Take my advice, buy all 14 MB studio albums. Introduce some rap-infested youth to REAL music!

This is the MOST underrated album ever put out by the Moody Blues. To me the last truly decent album they put out, 10 times better then "Keys" and much better the their recent effort "Strange Times". I read the reviews and was wondering did these people really listen to this album? I really didn't care for "Wildest Dreams" so it makes sense that I'm not a fan of "I know you're out there somewhere" which is just a continuation of "Wildest Dreams", but songs like "No More Lies", "Want to be with You" and one of the most ambitious songs from Hayward, "Deep" are well worth the price of this record. To those who gave this album such bad reviews, listen to it again and compare it to their recent works and I think you'll come to a different conclusion on it. It's really a pretty good album!

It kind of figures that a lot of the Moody Blues' biggest fans would write off 1988's "Sur La Mer". Everything on here was written by Justin Hayward and/ or John Lodge. On top of this, Ray Thomas doesn't appear on the album at all even though he was still officially a band member at the time, and Graeme Edge is credited for "acoustic drums", but a heck of a lot of the drumming is programmed/ sequenced. Keyboardist Patrick Moraz is still on board here, and his presence is strongly detected--just check out the synth horns on "Here Comes The Weekend"--but despite this, a case can be made that this is closer to another Blue Jays (i.e. Hayward & Lodge) album opposed to a bonafide Moodies project. The thing is though, Hayward & Lodge were clearly up for the challenge--they're really on top of their game here offering up a surprisingly great batch of songs. Hayward starts it off with the wonderfully optimistic, sunny pop-rocker "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" which continues in his "Your Wildest Dreams" style, but to even better effect. Hayward also supplies a couple more splendidly melodic songs with the charming, feel-good ballad "No More Lies"; and the breezy "Vintage Wine" which is wistful and reflective. The Hayward-Lodge team come up with the pleading "Want To Be With You", which is really pretty and engagingly melodic; as well as a couple of ultra-catchy, minor-keyed pop-rockers, both which have excellent layered vocals--the stomping "River Of Endless Love"; and the driving, uptempo "Miracle", the latter of which strongly recalls "Gemini Dream". Lodge's heart-wrenching ballad "Love Is On the Run" is a great piece of songwriting, and although the track is a little overproduced, it's a beautiful song anyway with a wonderful sliding guitar line. There's also no denying the sheer catchiness of Lodge's uptempo "Here Comes The Weekend" which does recall his "Rock & Roll Over You" from the previous album, but is actually less annoying. Much has been made over the album closer, Justin's "Deep", but I actually think it's a refreshing change of pace to hear him loosen up and do a song about wanting to have sex--beyond this, although the song does get needlessly dragged out, it has a really cool ominous atmosphere, plus one of Hayward's great, trademark fuzzy guitar solos. If you're a serious Moodies' fan, I can't see how you'll be that disappointed with this album--yes, the arrangements are at times a little overdone (particularly with those swirling arpeggiated synthesizers on a couple tracks); and yes, Toni Visconti's production is pretty darn slick, but for the most part, it lends itself effectively to the consistently top-notch songwriting that the album has to offer. I do want to point out though that "Sur La Mer" is definitely not the Moodies' most 'typical' album. If you're new to the Moody Blues and want a taste of their 1967-1972 symphonic rock sound, you're better off starting with "To Our Children's Children's Children", "A Question of Balance", or "Seventh Sojourn". Still, in terms of sheer high quality, "Sur La Mer" is a great one.

'Sur la Mer' honestly isn't all that bad, folks. Granted it WAS the late 1980's but you have to remember this band IS the fabulous Moody Blues after all. These men are just incapable of making a completely bad record-they are just too darned talented, quite frankly. Lets face it, they could sing the ingredients on a cereal box and make it sound good. The only really negative thing I can say about this album is that the lack of the great Ray Thomas' voice fronting a song left a huge void. At times is there just way too much synth and techno on SLM? Absolutely. Did I miss the basics of guitar, bass, drums and keyboard? Of course I did- especially John's bass. But what I do get on this album are the unmistakable words and voices of "most" of my beloved Moodies. When listening to this album, I have to gently remind myself of the era. Then I can relax and just enjoy the ride that The Moody Blues are about to take me on. I never regret the time spent with them. On to a few of the songs.......

'I Know You're Out There Somewhere' is Justin Hayward at his writing and singing best. This song doesn't sound that dated to me at all, if I can just get visions of the video out of my head. The way the MB's play it in concert today certainly doesn't make me think of the 80's. IKYOTS is classic and timeless in its theme of yearning for a lost love. Hayward can sometimes walk that fine line between sentimental and sappy like no one else, but more often than not he gets it just right. With his incredible voice and way with lyrics, he pulls it off here admirably.
'Want To Be With You' is simply a stunning number and one of my fave JH Moodies songs. Justin's voice has never been sweeter to my ears, and the way he and John harmonize, this song would have been perfect on their Blue Jays album. There is NOTHING at all dated about WTBWY- it would be right at home anywhere between 1970 and today.
'Vintage Wine' has certainly aged well also. Here again Hayward just blows my mind with his lovely words and how well he sings them. "I remember the taste of the vintage wine, from 63 through to 69. And I'm proud of the things we believed in then, if I had the chance I'd go around again". Perfection, folks.

John Lodge's rocker 'Here Comes the Weekend' makes me wish I was 22 again and in some trendy European dance club, showing them what this white country girl from Georgia can do. I'm not used to Lodgie rocking me w/o his trusty Fender bass but hey I adapt when its his voice and funky rhythm in my ears. The techno stuff was a bit much but not enough to take away from my joy of dancing to Johnny boy.
I can't say the same for 'The River of Endless Love', co-written by John and Justin and fronted by John on vocals. The sheer loud volume of the music takes away from what are great lyrics and at times overwhelms John's airy voice. A little less "noise" and I know I could have enjoyed this one. (See, I am capable of being critical of Lodge.)
'Breaking Point' is loud but not overly so- the volume suits the subject and tempo well. Co-written/sung by Hayward & Lodge, this one also makes me long to be on a dance floor somewhere about 20 years back. John's voice is well-suited for his parts, the first several verses of the song. John asks "Have you reached your breaking point tonight?" and "Are you sure you're alone?" in a way that only a woman could appreciate. Nice.....
'Miracle' is yet again another J&J collaboration and after several listens I am warming up to this very danceable tune just fine. The harmonies are just superb on this one.
'Love is on the Run' is the last one I'm commenting on and it is by far John's best effort here. It's a beautiful song on every level- music(great guitar work)tempo, lyrics and that way that only John Lodge can sing a song. "When your dream has lost its cause, don't waste your time in closing doors, you'll be the last to know, when love has gone." Aaahhh.... sounds so good to me. (John really needs to add this one to his concert repetoire- it's a great song.)

To sum up: remember that this album is circa 1988 but the unequaled talents of The Moody Blues sound good in any era.

Following the whirlwind success of "The Other Side of Life", the Moodies dashed into the studio to capitalize upon their commercial renaissance. While most consider this album the weakest Moody Blues release, there is still genuine musical ingenuity hidden under layer uopn layer of cheesy 80's synthesizers. It seems as if Hayward and Lodge discovered a brand new toy - the studio, and set forth to use their considerable talents to make quality music with a new flavor.

This is illustrated in tracks such as "Breaking Point" and "Deep". In these songs, Hayward and Lodge examine darker, primal themes brilliantly. "Want to be with You" and "Love is on the Run" are excellent tracks in the Blue Jays mold. The popular "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" is an obvious single and a worthy sequel to "Your Wildest Dreams."

The rest of the tracks are mediocre at best. "Here Comes the Weekend" and "River of Endless Love" are pleasant enough, but fall far short of the traditional Moodies standard of quality. The remaining two tracks have their strong points, yet still are woefully lame. All and all, this album was different, with its own unique strong points. It stands on its own merits but pales in comparison to the Moodies back catalogue.

This is actually a very nice album. I enjoy listening to it, and I find the Moody's always do quality work.